Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year
by gothicjedi666
Summary: Part one of a planned ten part series that will cover Jumper Gothic's decade in this world. This story will mostly be about Jumper Gothic setting up in this world, learning some basic magic, and putting plans into motion, later stories in the series will venture further from canon. First Year won't be as adult as most of my stories. I've T rated it just be on the safe side.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note**

For this story I will be doing one year at a time, summer to summer, just like in the Harry Potter books. Also I will try to finish each year and then post it, the first story won't be more than 75,000 words, but future stories should be longer, whenever it is I get around to writing them.

A reviewer stated that it was a shame that I never select any drawbacks, at least not any meaningful ones, so in this Jump I will take a drawback, and it won't be a minor drawback I've gone for something that awards quite a bit of extra CP, hopefully it won't prove to be too much of a hassle for Jumper Gothic.

Feel free to ignore this next part and go down to the start of the story. I just like having the record here as makes it easier for me to consult when writing the story.

**Jump 8 - Harry Potter Jump**

Gothic (Damien Pendragon)

Budget 1000cp

Half-Blood - 900cp

Wealthy - 800cp

Ravenclaw

Memory Spell Specialist - 700cp

Occlumency - 700cp

Clean Blooded - 600cp

Non-Verbal - 500cp

Qudditch Star - 400cp

Deluminator - 375cp

Flask of Polyjuice - 350cp

Pet Owl - 350cp

Nimbus Two Thousand - 350cp

Dragon-Hide Jacket - 350cp

Goblin Made Sword 200cp

Companion - 100cp (Morgana)

Companion - 0cp (Serana)

Morgana Pendragon

Budget 400cp

Pure-Blood - 400cp

Wealthy - 400cp

Gryffindor - 400cp

Dedicated - 300cp

Occlumency - 200cp

Clean Blooded - 200cp

Legilimency -100cp

Parselmouth - 0cp

Serana Volkihar

Budget 400cp

Muggleborn - 400cp

Middle Class - 400cp

Hufflepuff - 400cp

Dedicated - 400cp

Occlumency - 300cp

Clean Blooded - 200cp

Muggle Duelling - 150cp

Most Potenete Potions - 0cp

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 1**

**Cosmic Warehouse. Outside of Reality. **

While I could have chosen to stay in the magical and dangerous world of Elder Scrolls for as long as I wished it was time to move on. This world kept nearly ending, sure I could keep working to prevent that, but I didn't see saving Nirn as my responsibility.

Besides saving it was getting in the way of me actually learning any magic, and I'd already prevented the End of Days, for the people of Nirn, twice now. I really didn't think that more than this should be asked of me, or anyone for that matter.

With that in mind it was time to start the next Jump, and to let some hero take care of that world. The Elder Scrolls realm had a might champion already, the Dragonborn, and the Nive Divines could select some chosen one if they really needed to, like they had done with the Hero of Kvatch.

For the Jump to the world of Harry Potter I would be taking with me Morgana and Serana, who were my two companions with magical powers. Of course that was not the sole reason as to why they were coming with me on the next Jump.

In fact it hadn't even been my idea to go to that world. When planning Jumps in the past I hadn't wanted to go to Harry Potters world because going there would require me to live as a child. Which was not an ideal situation for me as growing up again held no appeal.

However Morgana wanted to take this Jump, and in the past I had allowed other companions to chose a Jump. They'd always selected settings that benefited the whole group in some way, and while this one didn't suit us all I could see why Morgana wanted to go to this world.

She'd grown up in a kingdom that killed magic users regardless of how or why they used their powers, as such Morgana had always needed to hide her gifts, however at Hogwarts she'd be praised for her magical and Seer powers.

I suspected that in the coming Jump, given her natural abilities, the perks she'd gotten, and her wealthy pureblood background that she'd be a very popular girl at school. Which I also suspected was part of her plan. Morgana had been rather isolated as a child so I could understand that for her going to Hogwarts could be a way to have the childhood she'd always wanted.

The same was likely true for Serana, who had a crappy family in this world, and while she'd never talked about it I could well imagine that her childhood had been a bad one, what her parents worshipping a Daedric Prince. Thinking on it I found it amazing that Serana was such a good person.

She decided to become a companion because of how long she'd spent sealed away from the world, she wanted to see new sites and have adventure. Plus the only home she'd ever known had been ransacked by the Dawnguard, and her father was dead.

As for her mother, well the two of them didn't get along so well and it wasn't if Serana couldn't go back one day. Sure we might be gone for a few centuries, but to a vampire that wasn't forever as they were immortal, and due to the way Jump Chain worked no one in Skyrim would even realise that Serana had left.

Well not until Jump Chain was over, either because I obtained my Spark or because I died and got a game over. This wasn't likely as I was hard to kill, and immortal to some extent. However Jump Chain wouldn't end at all if I didn't get to work on starting this new Jump.

**Harry Potter Jump**

Gothic (Damien Pendragon)

Budget 1000cp

Half-Blood - 900cp

Wealthy - 800cp

Ravenclaw

Memory Spell Specialist - 700cp

Occlumency - 700cp

Clean Blooded - 600cp

Non-Verbal - 500cp

Qudditch Star - 400cp

Deluminator - 375cp

Flask of Polyjuice - 350cp

Pet Owl - 350cp

Nimbus Two Thousand - 350cp

Dragon-Hide Jacket - 350cp

Goblin Made Sword 200cp

Companion - 1000cp (Morgana)

Companion - 0cp (Serana)

Since Morgana had already planned out this Jump for herself and I, there was no need to discuss my choices. Not until I made some alterations.

As for the change in name, well I was married to Morgana, and I'd been a Knight of Camelot, so in my view I had every write to use the Pendragon name as my own. I wasn't sure why I'd picked Damien as a first name, it had just popped into my head.

"You're going into Ravenclaw?" Morgana asked me.

I nodded.

"We don't have to be the same house" I debated "In fact it makes sense not to be, we don't want to crowd each other. We'll share classes and I know a place that we can met outside of lessons".

The Room of Requirement would do nicely as a meeting place for the three of us.

"I'll stick with Griffinydor" Morgana said "Some of us are brave and bold".

Hearing that amused me.

"Ravenclaw suits my personality" I stated "I'm not really the heroic type, I like plan things out rather than rush into action, so Griffinydor isn't for me. I don't make friends easy, and I don't feel loyalty to many people so Hufflepuff wouldn't suit me. And I'm a half-blood who doesn't give a crap about blood purity. On the hand I do like my books, and I can be witty so Ravenclaw makes sense".

No one argued this as my reasoning was sound.

Prisoner of Azakaban + 300cp

Of course my wife protested this.

"Morgana" I said to her "I've handled Vampire Lords, Sith Lords, System Lords, all sorts of evil people, I can handle a mad wizard".

The text of the setup stated that the wizard that came after me would be intelligent, skilled and resourceful, also mad, and that he would come after me within the first three years of school, but that was it. I had no idea if the wizard was a Death Eater or just unlucky bastard like Sirius Black who'd gone mad while locked up.

Even without Cameron at my side I wasn't concerned, in fact I was more concerned about Cameron finding out about this drawback and damaging herself by trying to stick close to while I was in Hogwarts, a place were technology wasn't suppose to work.

Not that she would need to worry. I was no victim, and I would have an adult form which I'd be able to switch to, which meant that I could hunt the insane wizard and kill him before he targeted me in my child body.

Phoenix - 300cp

"I figured that since I'm part of a rich pureblood family then I should already have access to a House Elf" I reasoned "and it might be possible to buy one to enlist as a companion after we leave school, but Phoenix's aren't something you can buy, and they are well worth the CP because of the powers they have".

Really I shouldn't create people, be the elf or not, simply to serve me, but I had done in the past and it didn't bother me anywhere near as much as it should, still there was no need to in this world, not when I could hire a free Elf such as Dobby. I might have to buy one and then offer the Elf wages as well as clothes, I'd see if that was possible.

As for the Phoenix, the text stated that it was a faithful pet, and not a person, so that should be okay.

It was also not a good idea to go into Dumbledore's old school house with a Phoenix as at least some people would think I was the next Dumbledore, or something stupid like that. I didn't know if the Headmaster was evil Dumbledore, or not, he might just be senile, but I wanted nothing to do with the old man, and judging by the books/films he didn't pay much attention to the students who were outside of his house or not enemies of it.

An advantage to owning a Phoenix, aside from having an animal companion that could teleport me around, cry healing tears, and carry heavy loads, was that the creatures were seen as good, and therefore anyone seen with a Phoenix was also good.

I doubted this was true as Dumbledore's phoenix supplied a feather for Voldemort's wand as well as Harry Potter's, which meant that Phoenix's might be more neutral than good. Although the wand thing wasn't really enough evidence to know for sure.

"That's me done" I declared.

Now it was the turn of the ladies.

"According to the rules we get identity, family and house for free, with only 400cp to spend on Skills and Abilities. We can't buy any gear, and I assume that means we don't even get free gear" Morgana explained to Serana, and not for the first time "But since we'll be wealthy we can just buy stuff. We can buy containers that are much larger on the inside so we should be able to take a lot of stuff with us".

Morgana Pendragon

Budget 400cp

Pure-Blood - 400cp

Wealthy - 400cp

Gryffindor - 400cp

Dedicated - 300cp

Occlumency - 200cp

Clean Blooded - 200cp

Legilimency -100cp

Parselmouth - 0cp

I next looked over Serana's set up the Jump.

Serana Volkihar

Budget 400cp

Muggleborn - 400cp

Wealthy - 400cp

Hufflepuff - 400cp

Dedicated - 400cp

Occlumency - 300cp

Clean Blooded - 200cp

Muggle Duelling - 150cp

Most Potenete Potions - 0cp

"Hufflepuff is the house for people who mostly get ignored right?" Serana asked "I fancy spending a few years as someone that gets overlooked".

None of us had gone for the House based options because we wouldn't have picked those houses if we felt that we were lacking in the virtues of that house. Although I personally though that Morgana was more of Slytherin than a Gryffindor.

"I don't blame you" I said.

Serana had been forced to live as the daughter of a powerful and rich man who was willing to destroy all life just to avoid an inconvenience, oh and they were all vampires. After that I could understand how tempting a middle class muggle family could be join.

In my view Morgana should be Slytherin, as she came from a noble family, she was cunning, and could be ambitious, soon she would even be able to talk to snakes. But she wanted to be in Gryffindor, and I wouldn't stand in her way. Besides no one could accuse of her lacking courage.

"Here are you background details" Morgana said as she handed Serana and I some bits of paper "I've filled out the details on the terminals, but I thought you'd like to see it in writing before we start the Jump".

Morgana had really outdone herself, or outdone me in any case. I'd never prepared this well for a Jump, although to be fair I mostly used the Drop In option. However Morgana had gone into detail to ensure that we would know our backgrounds before we got our new memories, and we would have it all spelled out for us.

I assumed that this was to help avoid confusion. We were about to become 11 year old who would soon be going to a magic school, that was bound to be a little unsettling even for an experienced Jumper like myself.

Serana was going to have the hardest time fitting in, at least until we got to Hogwarts, a castle full of magic users was actually normal for her. Then again Morgana hadn't struggled much when we'd left her world so perhaps I was underestimating my newest companion.

Morgana had created a background that suited the identities we'd selected. She'd created a powerful and rich Pureblood family, the Pendragons, and to ensure that they didn't alter the canon of the setting she'd made the family a neutral group that hadn't had any impact on Wizarding World politics since before the rise of Voldemort.

Since the Pendragon family had remained isolated until now Morgana and I would be mostly unknown in the Wizarding Community. This would mean that no one should have any preconceptions about us.

Our background also left us free to explain our gifts. The Pendragons were an old family and very magically powerful, they, well we, had also married into other families who were also old. This helped to explain why Morgana could talk to snakes as that was a trait of the Gaunt family, not that anyone should find out about that Perk.

Which in a sens meant that Morgana would be related to Voldemort in some way, that was weird to think about.

"I have a quarter Veela Au Pair?" I asked.

Morgana knew me well enough to remember that I didn't much care for making emotional attachments to people who were family in these backgrounds. So she'd stuck me in a divorced household, and had given me a child minder.

My muggle mother had gone off to Hollywood to become a famous actress, and was succeeding, while my wizard father worked in Hong Kong, and oversaw a highly profitable import/export business for many things, mostly exotic potion ingredients. For some reason Morgana had thought it important to specify that.

"What's an Au Pair?" Serana wondered "And what's a Veela".

I actually had to think about this. I'd not come across the term in many years.

"Not sure, but I think an Au Pair is like a nanny, but from a foreign country. They look after the children and live with the family, but they don't normally make a career out of like a professional nanny would" I explained "In the Wizarding World that might work differently. Mine is a graduated student of Beauxbatons who my father has employed to look after me when I'm not in school because he won't".

I did know something of the Veela, but not much.

"Veela are magical creatures that look like incredibly beautiful human women, human men can find them very attractive, so much so that they'll risk humiliation or even injury to get close to one" I explained "But when Veela are angry they transform into bird like creatures that can throw fireballs around".

For some reason that reminded of the old saying: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

"As for the half breeds they get seem to have the ability to entrance men, but other than that they are just attractive humans who might be able to do wand magic if they have a wizard father" I said "But I can't be sure on that, the only ones in the books are like quarter Veela so I imagine their powers Veela powers are a bit diluted".

I was sure that there was more to me having a Veela Au Pair than what Morgana had written down, but it hardly mattered to me right now. Yet I thought it wise to research this race as soon I could. The only Veela hybrids or otherwise that I could remember were all female I had no idea how they reproduced or what effect they'd have on me.

"You're not very grateful" Morgana said to me "I made sure she'd be attractive and she's from Beauxbatons, so she'll be a sexy French girl. And I don't want you making a fool of yourself during the Tri-Wizard event".

By that I figured she was referring to that Fleur women who marries one of Weasley boys. She must think that I'd build up a resistance to their supernatural charms and be able to prevent myself from acting like a drooling idiot during the Triwizard contest.

I added to the note and to the Terminal record to make sure it mentioned a lack of body hair on Au Pair. I recalled dimly that French girls didn't always shave their armpits. I liked my women as hairless as possible unless it was head hair which should be nice and long.

"We'll have plenty of time to explore our home lives once the Jump starts" I told my companions "We'll get the memories we need in order to blend in, and you'll have some time to adjust before school starts. Morgana and I will be cousins so we'll be able to contact each other easily enough".

Serana had chosen muggleborn for personal reasons, and because it would allow her to take advantage of certain discounts, on the downside it would isolate her from Morgana and I, but she was centuries old I felt sure she'd cope on her on own for a while.

"I should be able to send my Phoenix to find you" I told Serana "or my owl".

Since I couldn't decided on a name for either of my pets, or what genders they should be I'd leave it up to Jump Chan. When details weren't provided she tended to fill in the blanks.

"If anyone has any alternations to make now would be the time" I said "Go through the information Morgana has provided one last time, and if no one wants to change anything then we can start the Jump".

There was no rush, we could wait days if needs be, but I got the feeling that within hours I'd be starting a new life, and not for the first time. It never got old.

(Line Break)

**Cae Nest Hall. Wizarding World.**

My eyes opened as new memories flooded into my mind. I still wasn't use the experience and this time the childhood memories were much fresher than they had been during my Merlin Jump, which hadn't required to me to recall my younger years in much detail.

I might need to remove some of the memories, or just give myself time to process them, remembering the divorce of your parents is something you have to deal with one way or another. I'd knew this as I'd gone through it before.

While those memories sucked I did not mind my new home. The Manor House I lived in was in the middle of some splendid looking countryside and was close to Llanbedr, a small traditional Welsh village, a Muggle village.

Which was good for me because while I lived in a wizard home I was a half-blood, and it was important to use that to keep a foot in both worlds if possible. Also I knew that I existed in both worlds because my Muggle mother had insisted on making sure I had a birth certificate and all that.

Cae Nest Hall, to give my home its proper name, was an imposing stone built Manor House, with 3 floors (not counting the cellar and the attic) with enough grounds for impressive gardens. No swimming pool, but I didn't care about that, I'd never been one for swimming.

My new memories let me know that the most exceptional views could be taken in from the upper level of the north wing of the house, which looked out towards the sea, my bedroom was in that part of the house, so I was able to confirm the brilliance of the view in short order.

Another thing that I knew was that the property dated back to the Georgian period, and as such I'd be able to enjoy all the period features Georgian architects were famous for, such as exceptionally thick walls, window seats, and large fireplaces

It had 11 bedrooms, of which all but one had en-suite facilities, so that room had been converted to a play room for me at some point that I couldn't recall.

I knew that it contained a pool table, a dart board, a drinks cabinet, full of drinks suited to children, and what I guessed to be wizard games, as well as some books and magazines from both worlds.

While there was wizard radio, I lacked proper entertainments here, such as TV and a games system, not that this was a big loss given that it was early 1990's, but I would have to build a base of operations somewhere else so that I could make use of my advanced technology to play awesome video games, as well as spend time as an adult.

I was just thinking about the kitchen when suddenly I remembered that in this set up an owl should be seen flying towards my window when I start the Jump. I was still admiring the view so I saw the owl, and it dropped the letter into my hand before flying off.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL _of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Mr Damien Pendragon, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely

_Minerva McGonagall_

Deputy Headmistress

I felt giddy in a way that didn't suit me. I might be an 11 year old boy right now, however it wouldn't do to forgot that not that long ago I'd been the Supreme Commander of a confederation of entire worlds, twice. Plus a Knight of Camealot, a Council Spectre, and an office in the System Alliance Navy. I should not be acting like a hyperactive child even if I was a hyperactive child. I needed to think about things rather than simply react.

All of a sudden I knew that a very special quill exists, which writes down the name of every magical child in Britain at the time of their birth. This allows Hogwarts letters to be sent to all magical children at the appropriate time, even those who are Muggle-born.

The quill writes the names and addresses, and since it has done this for so many years without ever making a mistake no one checks the address, this was why no one at the school noticed that Harry slept under the stairs.

I didn't know why bit of information had been placed into my head as it no relevance to me whatsoever, but I decided to just ignore and read more of the letter.

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1\. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2\. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3\. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4\. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS

ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK

Yours sincerely,

Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus

Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions

Given the bold writing about the broomsticks I guessed that many parents didn't enforce that rule. I owned a very fine Broomstick, a Nimbus Two Thousand, which had only just gone on sale. A gift from a father who was never around.

Most of the letter didn't concern me right now, however I was concerned about the pet rule. I had an owl, he was called Owlowiscious for some reason, but I planned to hand the owl over to Serana since she might actually need one. I'd only gotten a pet owl because he cost me nothing in terms of CP.

I figured that I could write to the Deputy Headmistress and request permission to bring my Phoenix. I decided to that write away and went over to my writing desk. Luckly I recalled that I actually needed to accept my place at Hogwarts and mentioned that in the letter.

While I didn't know how paying for the education was actually done I didn't think an eleven year old needed to worry about that, so I decided not to either. The Pendragons were very wealthy so it wouldn't be an issue.

I finished the letter and sent it off, just as many care giver called up.

"Come et get breakfas!" she said

My Au Pair was speaking English with a French Accent rather than French, which I could easily understand thanks to one of the perks I'd picked up along the way, that allowed me understand what anyone said or had written down as long as I paid attention.

I grabbed my Hogwarts letter and headed downstairs, knowing the way despite never having been in this house until today. I was in my pjs I noticed as I passed a mirror, and on there were Qudditch balls and bats flying around. So right for this setting.

When I saw my Au Pair I knew that her name was Adele Delacour, she was the older sister of Fluer Delacour, and Gabrielle Delacour. I wondered why someone like Adele Delacour, could end up becoming my full time babysitter, but I didn't have a clue, although at once I suspected that my father's import/export business came into some how.

The other thing I knew right away was that Adele Delacour was a major hottie, there was no sexual attraction, my current body wasn't built for that, but I understood that she was gorgeous.

She had blonde hair, eyes like sapphires, and skin so smooth you'd think that she'd been sculpted rather than born. Also even with the robes she was wearing I could tell that she was well stacked.

From what I knew about the setup for this Jump our background couldn't alter canon, so somehow Fleur having an older sister wouldn't affect her life that much. I could accept this because they might be estranged or something like that. You'd think she'd be at the wedding when Fleur marries Bill, but perhaps it didn't really matter.

I handed the witch my acceptance letter, and she decided that this was a big deal worthy of praise despite me having done nothing.

"Aftair breakfast we shall go to Diajen Alley fair you schoul supplees" Adele declared.

Hopefully that accent would grow on me, and if it didn't, well I only had to see her during the summer for the next six years. Once I reached 17 I wouldn't have any need of her, or any absent parents.

I'd most likely drop out of Hogwarts and travel the world, or take my NEWTS if I actual enjoyed the school, and then go travelling with my companions. There was more to this world than the magical parts of Britain, and other cultures must have their own ways of doing magic.

That trail of thought came to a swift end when Adele decided to embrace me in such a way that her larger than average breasts met my face and got squished about while she babbled something in French that I couldn't understand due to being very distracted.

I'd always been a bum guy, finding a curvy backside more sexy than boobs, but I had a feeling that in this life time that could change. Alas the comfy pillows were taken away too quickly for my liking, but this did mean that I could eat food so I wasn't upset for long.

Already I was starting to think that I could really enjoy this Jump. I wouldn't mind a chance to sit back, relax, and let other people do the worrying.


	2. Chapter 2

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 2**

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding Britain.**

My first stop was Ollivander's, as he had sent me a letter asking me to come to his place of business as soon as I could, and he'd not mentioned as to why. I had the horrible feeling that the wand maker, who was a strange man and perhaps not even human, somehow knew that I wasn't what I appeared to be.

This might seem as if I was worrying over nothing, which was something I needed to avoid as there was no sense stressing myself out over things, however it was a real concern, and it wouldn't the be the first time that someone had figured out that I wasn't exactly whom I seemed to be.

Although the last person to do this had been the Great Dragon, an ancient and powerful creature that had once been chained up below the castle at Camelot.

Making my way as quickly as I could through the crowds I sighed in relief as I opened the door to Ollivander's store, not matter what it would soon be over, I'd know that it was best not to delay this meeting.

It hadn't taken me long to get here, my babysitter and I had used the floo, a way of travelling from one fireplace to another, to go directly to the Leaky Cauldron, and then we'd entered the alley from the back of the pub.

For reasons of her own Adele decided to wait outside while I went to into the wand shop. Which had only made me more nervous, but now that I was actually here I felt better. If there was an issue, then I'd just have to deal with it, even if that meant taking drastic action.

"Good afternoon Mr. Pendragon" I heard someone say from behind me.

Thankfully I only jumped a little as I thought that he might sort of pop out at me. Also I wasn't shocked that this man, if he was a man, knew my name, as he seemed to know everyone's.

"Mr. Ollivander." I said in reply.

Garrick Ollivander appeared very close to his characterisation in the movies. He looked quite a bit like John Hurt did in the films, if not a little younger. His choice of clothing would not have look out of place if I'd somehow ended up in Victorian times, and I wondered if that was when Ollivander had brought the clothing, or if they just had strange fashion.

"I called you on a matter of some importance Mr Pendragon" the wand maker was now saying "And I'm glad you came so quickly".

With some effort I was able to keep calm.

"Yesterday I had a very odd visitor" I was informed "Your Phoenix, he gifted me with three feathers. I assumed that one was for you and that the other two are for wands I've not yet made".

Well this was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. I was in no way in trouble.

"You will need to pick a wood for your wand, but the core will best suit you since it comes from a magical creature that is clearly bonded to you" Ollivander was now letting me know "I've had many people ask me to make a custom wands, and its been many years since I have since I only work with cores that I find to be reliable. Lucky for you phoenix feathers are one of those cores, and they are not easy to come by, so I very grateful for the donation. The feathers from your Phoenix will make for powerful wands I am sure".

He turned and motioned for me to follow after him, but not before flicking his wand to turn a sign on his door from open to closed. After pausing for a second I followed him. The shelves full of wands made for a slightly narrow passage. Thankfully I made it through without knocking in to any of them as I was much smaller in this form.

The last thing I wanted was to make a fool of myself, knocking over wands and possibly breaking them. I didn't know how delicate wands truly were. Although I suspected that I wouldn't break any of them even if I did make a mess, but I saw no sense in testing that.

I found myself in a workshop was surprisingly large, perhaps some sort of space expanding charm was at work?

While taking a breath I inhaled the smell of polish and sawdust, and while the workshop was kept tidy I could tell that it was a busy place at times.

There were shelves filled with lengths of wood lining two of the walls while another held bits and pieces of magical creatures all in jars. Ollivander might only work with certain cores now, but it was clear that this hadn't always be in the case, and that he might dabble in trying out new cores even if the results of this work never got used by any witch or wizard.

All of a sudden Mr Ollivander clapped his hands, bringing my attention back to him.

"Now we will find the right wood for you" the strange man told me.

The core was only part of what made a wand.

"What do I need to do?" I asked.

Hopefully it wasn't some sort of complex and time consuming thing.

"You will need to place your wand hand near the stacks of each wood" he told me "You should be able to sense the wood most suited to you".

Before we began he had more to say.

"Every single wand is unique, its personality, for lack of a better term, will depend on the particular tree and magical creature from which it derives its materials, as much as it does from the witch or wizard who it bonds to" I was informed "Moreover, each wand, from the moment it finds its ideal owner, will begin to learn from and teach its human partner".

He made it sound as if wands were alive in some sense, perhaps they were, I'd grown organic crystals, and I'd seen living star ships, so for me what qualified as life wasn't the same as for other people.

Also I found this information interesting as while Morgana, Serana and I would have wands, I might recruit other magic users in the future, who might be able to learn wand magic, so I should take some time to study wand lore within the next ten years.

"What kind of trees supply the wood for wands?" I asked.

Since the latest warehouse addon was a greenhouse, really that word didn't due it justice, I could now grow magical plants, even trees, so I might plant some just so I could harvest wood for wands.

"Only a minority of trees can produce wand quality wood" it was explained to me "It takes years of experience to tell which ones have the gift, although the job is made easier if Bowtruckles are found nesting in the leaves, as they never inhabit mundane trees".

The wand maker instructed me to run my hand over some boxes of wood, so I did. While holding my right hand out I tried to feel the wood, I didn't know what I was trying to feel and I felt silly doing this until I got a tingle it could be called. More slowly this time I ran my hand over the different woods.

Some reacted stronger than others and I moved my hand back to them before moving on. It was near the end when I got the strongest reaction of all. I still tested the other woods before moving back to the most tingly of feeling.

"That one" I informed the Wand Maker.

Ollivander seemed delighted by my choice.

"Every single wand is unique" he let me know "How it works for you will depend on its character. That character depends on the particular tree and magical creature from which it derives its materials. Moreover, each wand, from the moment it finds its ideal owner, will begin to learn from and teach its human partner, as I said before".

The wand maker had much more to tell me.

"As you can see Aspen wood is white and soft to the touch, but still fairly strong, and has low flammability, so its less likely to catch fire than some wands" it was explained to me "It has a number of uses, notably for making parchment, this wood came from the species _Populus tremula_, a type of aspen tree that I found right here in the British Isle. This wood came from a tree that was nearly two hundred years old".

I found this all rather interesting.

"When used in wand wood it makes for a smooth feeling wand" Ollivander educated me by saying "It is prised by wand makers such as myself for its resemblance to ivory and many owners of an Aspen wand can do some outstanding charm work".

That sounded good to me.

"In my experience, aspen wand owners are generally strong-minded and determined people" I was told "More likely than most to be attracted by quests and such".

Well I did like a good adventure. I'd had a lot of running around in Skyrim doing quests.

"But you must be careful with your wand" Ollivander advised me "Aspen is not the strongest of wands woods, it is not that weakest either, and while all wands need to be cared for, you should take extra care".

I nodded to signal that I would indeed be careful.

"Now your core" Ollivander went on to say "Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike".

He had more to say on the subject.

"Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners" it was let known "for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent in the world, which is why few ever bond themselves with a human".

I'd already met my phoenix and he was independent alright. In fact he'd already buggered off somewhere.

"You may find that your wand will be hard to work with at first" I was warned "but if you learn to work with your wand you'll find to be as loyal in battle as it is the classroom".

That seemed to be it for my unexpected wand lore lesson.

"Now what?" I asked.

Ollivander snapped his fingers causing a tape measure to levitate from one of the shelves and revolve around me, taking measurements. I had no idea what they were for because he never measured my right arm. Then the man clapped his hands and the tape measure disappeared.

"Now I will need to work on your wand." Ollivander said to me "Return in a few hours and it will be ready".

As I left the store I couldn't help wandering who would get wands with the other two feathers that my Phoenix (who was called Sol) had donated. I didn't think that it would be Serana or Morgana because Ollivander was unlikely to create more wands using those feathers anytime soon, not when he had so many to sell.

I'd come back and ask if they'd been sold at some point. Those wands who be brothers to my wand, and as such might have some sort of connection to me. It was be interesting to see who got them, assuming the wands made were even sold in the time I had in this world.

(Line Break)

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding Britain.**

My next stop was Gringotts. I quickly found the goblins to be a mix of what I had expected. The knowledge of this world I'd gotten from my background let me know that while they were not the wizard-hating warmongers some imagined them to be, they weren't the super helpful buddy buddy beings who really just wanted to be friends, that some fanfiction authors made them to be.

I reached out with the Force, and while my near-ascended abilities and Force powers, were somewhat diminished in my child form (and I couldn't access my biotics at all due to lack of element-zero and implants) I still had a strong enough connection to the Force and my mystical senses to know that the bank was not that strong in the darkside. It was a bit more nasty than other other banks.

Which suggested the goblins were not so much evil as they were simply greedy little fuckers. Not that I would trust them as they were still bankers.

Very quickly I was handed over to the creature that was in charge of all the accounts the extended Pendragon family possessed. Which was quite a few given how large and old the family happened to be.

For now my account was a trust fund, which was refilled to a certain level a few times a year, and this gold was to be used by me to put myself through school, as well to provide me with the money required to keep myself entertained. I didn't know how the Household expenses were handled, and I didn't much care.

This was because I had years to go before I turned seventeen and needed to look after myself in terms of money so I'd have time to learn and to acquire wealth my own. For now I had other things to focus on.

"I am the Account Manager for your family" the goblin said as we made our way to vault "My name is Slashvine".

He didn't ask for my name, of course he would already know it.

"Key, please" said the goblin.

Adele had my key, and after it was used to open the vault I took the key. Which my Au Pair did not protest so I assumed that she had always intended to give me the key once I started school.

My trust fund vault was not that impressive. There was nothing more than a stone plinth with a large pile of coins on it, no artefacts, or any weapons. To someone with a Cosmic Warehouse this was a pitiful display of wealth and property.

I filled my money bag with coins and then left the bank as quickly as I could since there was no reason for me to stay, and while the goblins might not be evil per say I still didn't like them.

Besides I had some cool magic stuff to buy.

(Line Break)

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding Britain.**

Stepping out of Gringotts I grinned. I knew where I wanted to go first, but Adele spoke before I could mention my desires.

"You weehl need a trunk" she said.

That made sense since I'd been intending to buy a load of books right away and that would easier if I had something to carry them in.

"I'm going to need a lot of storage space" I mentioned.

After all what kind of Ravenclaw wouldn't want to carry around his own library.

"Can I help you?" someone asked as we entered the right store.

I turned and looked at the speaker, he was a typical wizard, dressed smartly enough, but well behind the times. At least in Muggle terms, Wizards would their own trends and retro styles did sometimes become mainstream.

Adele let me handle my own affairs yet again. I was sure that she would butt in if required.

"I'm looking for a special trunk" I told the man who I assumed to be the store owner "Something with a lot of internal space and can hold all my school supplies".

And perhaps more, like cool magical artefacts, however there was no need to mention that.

"Any preference?" I was asked "Do you want something plain, or a bit more fancy".

I was wealthy so I wanted something good. The first trunk I was shown looked like old fashioned chest that would hold a pirate's treasure. It was made of wood and banded with metal that had to be gold. The silver coloured lock had four different key holes.

"This trunk has four compartments, all of which, are special" I was informed "The first one you can use for storing your school supplies, paper, parchment, quills, other odds and ends, ink bottles, which are guaranteed to never spill. The second one is made to hold clothes and the third is specially made to hold your books. The last one will hold the big stuff like your telescope and broom".

When the first compartment opened up I saw the set of drawers. There were a total of eight drawers with silver handles. Above each of the handles was a empty place holder which looked like it was meant to hold a label.

"Just place the tip of your wand on the label and say what you want it say" the salesmen told me "Like I told you already these draws are good for holding your school supplies. Ink, quills, parchment and so on. There's a draw for your pocket money, which only you can open. The big draws are for potions stuff. You even have a little draw for treats for your pets, and it keeps them fresh".

I could have gone for a bigger trunk, but I like this one, at least for school stuff. I'd likely upgrade by 3rd year because of the extra classes. Also I wouldn't use my school trunk for storing things in the Cosmic Warehouse. I'd have to acquire more of these special containers in the future.

"Might want to step back lad." the man advised before flicking his wand at the trunk.

Quickly I did as he had instructed, and watched as the lid lifted itself and a metal clothes rack lifted itself out of the trunk. The rack itself had wooden hangers hanging from it while beneath it was a flat rack for shoes or boots, and beneath it was several long drawers. Behind the rack was a wooden back with a long mirror that almost covered the entire length and width of the wooden back.

"The clothes rack will keep your clothes all nice and clean" the salesman told me "The shoe rack can even polish your shoes for you, just tap it with your wand and make sure it has plenty of polish. The drawers are for your socks and undergarments".

Since the House Elves would clean and iron my clothes I didn't need the clothes rack to do anything more than safely store my outfits. Plus cleaning would require soap and water, and I could see that going horribly wrong.

"The third compartment is called a library compartment, not very creatively named but it is what it is" said the salesman.

With the third key he opened the trunk and stepped to the side to allow me to see what popped up this time. It appeared that only thing inside of it was shelving, a lot more than should be allowed given the external dimensions.

"The books are sorted by subject and by title" I was informed "So you can just chuck them in and let the shelves sort out the books, it even has a fiction section that gets sorted by genre and author instead of subject and author".

As for the fourth and final compartment, it was just a large empty space. Which was meant for the storage of stuff like telescopes and brooms.

"How much?" I asked.

It would so be worth the price.

(Line Break)

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding Britain.**

While shopping I passed by so many stores, such as the 2nd Hand Brooms, and entered others, such as Amanuensis Quills, which I got my stationary supplies from. Also I popped into a store that was located at North Side, Diagon Alley which supplied people with ingredients for potion-making and the equipment required.

The apothecary was a breeze compared to Olivander's. I got the standard first year potion's kit, and a book which explained in detail what all the different ingredients reacted together. Right now everything was just random bits of bugs and goo to me so there was no point in getting extra in anything until I actually knew what it all did.

I went with crystal vials as I could afford the best and they were practically unbreakable according to the wizard who'd sold them to me. I also got a nice set of brass scales that would make measuring out stuff for my potions easy enough.

After that I went to another store and I bought the standard astronomy supplies as well. Honestly, if I was going to buy anything extra for this subject it would be some muggle books not the wizard ones.

Muggles just seem so much more advanced when it came to this subject. I was sure that there was some magic lore which I need to know about, and that it would involve the phases of the moon or whatever, but had wizards even been to the moon? Or to space?

I figured that I needed to keep a more open mind on this subject, but I could help but feeling that astronomy would be made trivial with a some good star charts. In fact give it time and the Muggleborn students would be looking it all up online.

As for me I had incredible accurate star charts for the Milky Way made by probes and star ships. I'd even been to some of the star system that I'd seen on charts in the store that sold the astronomy stuff.

Before long I visited Eeylops Owl Emporium, a pet shop located in Diagon Alley that sold owls and various other things needed for the care of owls, like Owl Treats. I had an owl, but I intended to give him to either Serana or Morgana while using Sol to deliver my mail since he could do it in seconds by flame teleporting about. He could even take me with him when teleporting, but only me.

Already I'd gone to Madam Malkin's, or whatever it was called, for my school clothes, which were already in my trunk, the school clothes were self repair, would grow with me, and stay crease free, but I was drawn to other items.

I'd ended up exiting the shop with charmed leather gloves, that would always keep my hands warm, useful since I was going to school in Scotland. Everything else that I brought was made of dragon hide.

Where Muggles would wear leather, wizards would wear dragon hide, and it made sense as the hide of a dragon was very tough, impervious to a multitude of spells, and provides immense protection from the elements, while at the same time having the same texture and appearance as snakeskin.

In this world dragon hide was used to make gloves, boots, jackets, belts, and even cloaks. It was in high demand and most dragon hide was used to make gloves, for the handling of hazardous materials.

Given that dragon hide resisted magic I could imagine that it was a nightmare to enchant, but given my age it would be foolish in the extreme to buy such clothing if it didn't resize itself for me. The enhancements of this world made things so much easier I'd have to look into them.

Lucky for the Pendragon family was rich to the point that I could simply charge the expense of all the dragon hide clothing to my vault. It wasn't as if I'd need more money until Christmas, and then I'd not spend a penny until the summer as I couldn't go Hogsmede until 3rd year.

If I needed money in my adult form I'd have to acquire it by some means. Which wouldn't be much of a chore given that I had access to replicators.

Why Adele let me spend so much I didn't know, the only comments I got on the issue of my fashion choices were remarks about how handsome I now looked. Only she said it a silly French accent.

I soon ended up at Flourish and Blotts, I half expected to run into Hermione Granger while here, but from I knew about Muggleborns they get visited by a teacher and that meeting was most likely happening right now, so no first year Muggleborn would even be able to enter the ally this early in the summer.

As for the store well the place was a maze of books. There were books about every magical category imaginable. Charms, potions, history, obscure languages, wizard culture, wizard music, and wizard hobbies. You could spell your own cheeses or learn to knit a jumper that gave you hugs.

It was a very good thing that they had hand baskets with charms placed on them to make the carrying weight lighter, or I would have been doubled over with my purchases pretty quickly. Adele's comments about my thin arms didn't help either.

First I bought all of the books from the school list, paid for them, and then stuffed them in my trunk. I then went back and bought the whole seven years worth of books in the Stand Book of Spells Series as that way I could go through them at my own pace.

Once the school books were handled I wandered the shelves and found a few more interesting books that I threw in my cart; Hogwarts a History, Arithmancy for Beginners, and some stuff I didn't even understand the title of, I would find out about them later.

A quick look at a book on runes let me know that they had nothing to do with enchanting as I'd read in many fanfictions, instead in this version of Potter's words, the study of Ancient Runes was like studying Latin.

Runes saw some use in legal documents, and some enchanters were known to mark their creations with a personalised rune, but the symbols had no practical use outside of legal documents. Instead enchanting was performed by placing a series of charms on an object.

To enchant something you had to be very good at charms and to apply the spell a number of times, or a series of them in the right order, which could be very time consuming and tiring work I imagined. I was sure that I would learn more about it later. I did already know that an enchanted an object was referred to as being: bewitched.

Before my shopping came to an end even brought copies of Predicting the Unpredictable: Insulate Yourself Against Shocks, Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst is Coming, and Broken Balls: When Fortunes Turn Foul, I had the ability to see the future using the Force so I might as well see if that talent could go further, If not then I was sure that Morgana would figure it out.

"Zat eez enough, you'll run oot of money air spacé een yur trunk" Adele said to me.

She might be right, I hadn't even picked up a telescope yet. Plus I still hadn't picked up my wand. I should go do that now, or maybe it could wait until after I an early dinner. I wanted to try some wizard food.

(Line Break)

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding Britain.**

"It looks like a horn" I commented as the owner of this store showed me the box that contained my wand "I like it".

Compared to other wands, which to me appeared to be fancy sticks, mine looked like the horn of magical beast.

"Pick it up and give it a wave" Ollivander instructed "We don't know if it is right for you, although I can't imagine it preferring anyone else".

Gently I took the wand out of the box and gave it a quick wave, nothing exploded or went flying about, instead I heard music, it was distant, and it had a quality that I couldn't put into words. It was like the echo or memory of hearing phoenix song, which I knew could have a profound effect on people.

_"Lumos"_

The tip of the wand lit up with a light that was very noticeable since I was within the dimly lit wand shop.

"Oh yes" said Ollivander "This wand is for you. Aspen, fourteen inches, a little larger than normally, but not overly so, with a phoenix feather core. It will serve you well in charms particularly suited to martial magic, I dare say that I am looking a future duellist, assuming of course that you and your wand can learn to work together".

_"Nox"_

Once I'd ended my first wand spell I placed the magical tool back in the box, and I found out then that the store owner had no intention of charging me since my phoenix had provided him two extra feathers which had value greater than that of the wood or the labour involved.

With our business concluded I headed out the door, eager to head home and to start learning about the local's way of performing magic.

(Line Break)

**Cae Nest Hall. Wizarding World.**

While I didn't know how a witch or wizard had the Trace placed upon them, I did know that I didn't have it on me, because if the Ministry did have it on me I'd have been expelled ten times over by now as I practised spells for school.

I figured out that until you actually entered Hogwarts the Ministry trusted magical parents to properly discipline their children if they performed magic due to the fact that the parents' own magic would constantly interfere with the Trace, which was allowing me to practice spells.

Children who grow up in the Muggle world, such as Harry Potter, must be more closely monitored because they are around Muggles as such any magic that was performed at or near 4 Privet Drive was more likely to be seen by non-magicals.

The evidence given by the books/films suggested that the Trace detected magic going around Harry not what magic he did otherwise Dobby couldn't have gotten him into trouble. Also I didn't think that accidental magic could be traced like wand magic so perhaps the trace was on the wand not the person using it.

Either the Trace was lifted or the Ministry does not monitor it when underage witches and wizards are attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, holidays not included, allowing students to perform magic freely. It also appeared that students can also use magic freely on the Hogwarts Express if the source material is anything to go by.

I remembered Hermione Granger also admitted to successfully trying out "a few simple spells" just prior to her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but, apparently, she never received any notification that this was banned even though, as a Muggle-born witch, it is unlikely that there were any other wizards or witches in her vicinity whom the Ministry could have believed cast the magic instead.

However, this is probably because the Ministry does not monitor pre-Hogwarts students because their magic is normally uncontrollable. This may, however, indicate that the Trace is actually put in place after students begin formal learning, meaning that it could be placed on a person as they entered the school. Perhaps that this was another reason for the Sorting Ceremony?

I guessed that magic users who hadn't formally started their education weren't required to follow the law because they weren't considered mature enough to understand their responsibility. Then when you reach 17 the trace was removed because your considered old enough to monitor your own spell casting while out in the big bad world.

There was an inconsistency in that as when Tom Riddle was sixteen, he murdered his father and grandparents with the Killing Curse and then modified his uncle Morfin Gaunt's memory so that he would confess to the crime.

Perhaps he devised a way to block or even dispel the Trace since the Ministry was not recorded as having been aware of his presence in the area or his later secret creation of at least one Horcrux while he was of school age. That was the sort of spell that people should be monitored for.

I considered it possible that the Trace does not apply to magic used on the train to school, which could be seen as an extension of the school, or in the "Muggle-free" environment of Diagon Alley. However, when used on the train, there were some adult wizards and many Hogwarts students (some of whom are seventh years and already turned 17), and in the case of Diagon Alley, it was an all-wizard location, and almost everybody was of age.

Well whatever the reason I seemed to be free and clear to use magic at home before I went to school, and I was taking advantage of that to practice spells. My wand was not always cooperating, so a few things exploded or caught on fire, but I was getting better.

I'd also had the chance to test my other powers and how well they worked for now that I was in a child's body. My connection to the Force had been weakened, and that made sense since if losing limbs can diminish your connection the Force then shrinking in an 11 year old should also have that effect.

Another explanation could be that my younger body simply couldn't handle the full power of the Force, and so the Force itself was preventing me from trying to access too much energy, since it did have a will of its own. I also figured that my connection to the Force when using this body would grow as I aged.

The same was most likely the case for my near-ascended abilities. I hadn't tried healing yet, but I could with more effort than normal move things with my mind and inflict pleasure upon people, which my Au Pair had discovered, resulting her needing to go lie down for a while.

As for controlling fire, summoning up a thunderstorm and reading minds, those powers were not longer at my beck and call. My child brain simply couldn't perform on that level, and it was not easy to control multiple lightening strikes even for an adult near-ascended human, I didn't even want to try in this form.

"_The Levitation Charm is one of the first spells learnt by any young witch or wizard. With the charm a witch or wizard can make things fly with the flick of a wand. The charm is an excellent test of your magical skills, wand control and above all, patience_".

Well that was what the book told me. I'd tried this spell on a number of objects, starting with paper air planes because making them had become oddly appealing, an effect of my current form I assumed. Alas my paper air force had either burned up or exploded for some reason.

I read some more of the book, hoping for some insight.

_The Levitation Charm was first developed in the sixteenth century, and warlock Jarleth Hobart is credited with its creation._

_On 16 July, Hobart invited a large crowd of wizards, among which was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, to witness his "maiden flight" — a public demonstration of his own revolutionary charm on himself. He climbed onto the roof of his local church and, after several speeches and a rousing performance of the national anthem he leapt and, having cast the spell, was left hovering in mid-air. At first, he seemed to have succeeded but, after having spent nearly three minutes watching him hanging in mid-air, the crowd grew impatient to see him move somewhere, and booed him._

_In response to the catcalls, Hobart tried to move in midair, and started performing vigorous swimming movements, which produced no effect. Mistakenly believing that his clothes were making him heavier and impeding his movement, Hobart stripped thus making him fall ten feet onto the ground below, as it were the clothes that were holding him up in the air — they had been charmed by the Levitation Charm, not Hobart himself. He fell completely naked on the ground, breaking sixteen bones, and received a fine for "outrageous silliness" from the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot in 1544._

_Hobart returned home, humiliated, where he realised that his spell could make objects levitate for varying lengths of time, depending on the skill of the spellcaster and on the weight of the object. He also concluded that small animals or even children could be levitated, but that they had no control whatsoever of their movement once airborne._

_He thus made a second announcement, and an even larger crowd gathered to see his second demonstration of the spell (hoping for another laugh at his expense). Hobart's demonstration was, at first, by far more successful than the first one: he showed the onlookers how he could easily levitate objects ranging from small rocks to fallen trees. Hobart decided that, for a finale, he would levitate the Chief Warlock's hat — what he managed to levitate, however, was the Chief's wig, exposing his bald head to the gathered crowd. The Chief was not amused, and was determined to duel Hobart, but the Warlock levitated the Chief's robes over his head, and ran for it._

While amusing that didn't help me.

"Damien, time fair dinnair" a woman called out.

My stomach rumbled, and I decided to get back to this later. I had ten years to master magic so really there was no rush. I would learn to alter reality on a whim.


	3. Chapter 3

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 3**

**Cae Nest Hall. Wizarding World.**

After visiting Diagon Alley, in order to get my school supplies, I'd not been able to leave the house, aside from getting to hang out in the garden, which not only free of gnomes, but also rather dull, and I was suppose to play in it. Thing is I had no idea how to do that, as I wasn't actually a child. How did children simply play?

I might not be as physically or as mentally developed as I used to be, but I was decades old, even older if you counted the background memories I'd gotten from some Jumps. Heck I didn't even know how old I actually was in terms of years lived.

Alas for me my sexy French Au Pair had cast some sort of charm on me that told her when I wandered too far from the house, so I couldn't even visit the nearby Muggle Village without Adele's supervision. However going to the Muggle village wasn't much help as while I had the money to buy almost anything I desired as my home didn't have electricity or any other children to play with so most forms of Muggle entertainment were pointless to purchase aside from acquiring even more books.

I'd gotten into contact with Morgana, but her family were off on vacation for most of the summer, as for Serana's family they had no contact with the wizarding world, so I was limited to letter writing with my companions.

The only thing keeping me sane at this point was my school books. I'd almost read them all cover to cover. I took notes as I read, noting things that I would need to look into in greater detail at a later date, so I should have a great head start before getting to school.

Sol, my Phoenix, could use his fire teleporting powers to take me anywhere I wanted to go, but since I didn't know how to remove the charm without alerting Adele that didn't help. Plus I didn't really have anywhere to go.

Once I got to the school that would no longer be an issue since either Adele would remove her tracking charm or I'd find a way to do. Hogwarts had a massive library and if the answer wasn't there them my head of house, who was a Charms Master should be able to tell me, I could just claim that I had some sort of spell on me placed on me by another student and that I would like it removed.

I did considered messing with Adele's memories, and charming her, so that she would remove the charm so that I could leave the house and grounds while alone, but really I didn't want to test my memory charms on the nice lady who was making me yummy food.

Not that it really mattered as I had a whole decade in this world, that was plenty of time to build a hidden base, and to experiment with magic. Spell practice was at least something I could do.

I'd taken the time to practice some spells when Adele went for one of her lie downs, she didn't approve of me casting spells, as while I wasn't actually breaking the law she didn't want me using magic until I'd had some schooling.

Which was sensible as I sure as hell wouldn't want an uneducated 11 year old boy trying to alter reality at will, but she was unaware of the fact that I could already cast a wide range of spells from different worlds.

My thinking was that if I was going to do this whole wizard thing, then I might as well do it right. Besides wand magic could come in handy in future Jumps. Sure I had more potent ways of fighting than by waving a stick around, but magic could be very subtle at time, and that could be useful.

Eventually there might be a war were I may have to pick a side. Sure I was a half-blood, but I came from a rich and powerful family so the Death Eaters might try to recruit me, and so could the good guys.

Since I actually had a Phoenix it seemed most likely that the Order would try to enlist my aid should the war between light and dark be going on once I was an adult. I'd rather avoid a war as while such a conflict would be a playground scrap compared to what I was used to I was well aware of how even a small scale conflict could destroy many lives.

However that was a concern for the future, for now I needed to focus on my magical education, I'd not been able to do that as much as I would have liked in the Skyrim Jump. I should be able to learn more of that magic over the next ten years as I had gathered materials for study.

Unlike my education in muggles school, primary, secondary and higher, the study of magic, even as a schoolboy didn't feel much like work. I'd already filled in so many gaps in my magical knowledge. I was so glad I'd gone crazy at the bookstore.

I had that going for me at least, I had plenty of foreknowledge, maturity beyond my age, and an adult work ethic. Granted becoming a child was holding me back somewhat as I didn't have the same attention span as before, I was more easily distracted. I was wishing that I'd taken the Dedicated Perk to help with study, but in my defence I'd not thought that I would need it.

Thankfully my attention span would grow as I did, allowing me to study better as I got older. Of course it went without saying that I would have to study my brains out and do extracurricular practice in Defence Against the Dark Arts since an evil wizard was going to come after me at some point.

Plus with my time to think I was able to research stuff like becoming an animagus. In the fan fics I'd read a person always turns into something useful, however real life wasn't always accommodating. Which made wonder what if I devoted a lot of time and energy only to end up being able to turn into a trout?

There was no way to know what animal could turn into in advance, you didn't find out until you neared the end of the process. However a person's animagus form was often the same as their patronus so if I could master that spell first then I'd know if it was worth the risk becoming an animagus.

That was to worry about in the future. Right now what concerned me more than trying to make paper air planes fly around without catching fire, was that I had a head full of future knowledge.

While I had no desire to see people get killed if I could so easily do something about it, the more I meddled the less the foreknowledge I already have will be accurate, but I knew that simply existing here that I could create ripples and change things.

Also I knew from past Jumps that it was best to take carefully planned actions for maximum benefit without interfering too much with stuff that needs to happen, at least to begin with as there would come a point when the time line altered so much that you might as well be an alternate reality.

There were things I'd like to get involved in. Exposing Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew so that Sirius Black would get out of Azakaban was high on the list. Also I should prevent the Chamber of Secrets from opening up during my second year, as I didn't want a giant killer snake roaming the halls of my school.

I'd decided not to plan much ahead aside from a few major things as for the most part the first year at Hogwarts was actually pretty duel outside a few important events, such as the Troll at Halloween, the quidditch match were Qurrilmort tries to curse Harry, and well there was some other stuff, but I didn't care about that.

Lying back I used the Levitation Charm to make a paper plane fly about, this attempt had been going well so I was disappointed when the plane burst to flames and exploded. My wand and I needed to start getting along.

I would tame this pleasant looking silly bit of wood to my will no matter what it took. Perhaps if I connected to it with the Force, infused it with Force energy like I had done to my lightsaber, then maybe we'd get along better.

Well there was no time like the present, so I got into meditation position and began putting myself in trance, hopefully there would be time to do this before dinner. My eleven year old body simply didn't allow me skip meals.

(Line Break)

**Cae Nest Hall. Wizarding World.**

Today was the day, we'd gotten up at seven, yet things were still frantic as I tried to fill my trunk with everything I might need. I'd been doing this for an hour, now yet I knew that I'd forget something even I spent an hour more at this.

"We mus urry!" Adele was now yelling.

Rather than just wave her wand around and say 'Pack' she was carefully inspecting every item that went into the trunk, making sure that I didn't take any contraband items with me, and making sure that I had plenty of clean underwear.

I had no idea why the underwear thing was so important, it wasn't as if anyone other than me would ever see them and the school had House Elves for doing the laundry so I'd always have clear undergarments. Perhaps she was just trying to embarrasses me.

Rather than focus on that I mentally went over the contents of my trunk for what could be hundredth time. It was well stocked with quills, ink, pencils and pens (I'd gotten some Muggle stationary from the local village) I had parchment, a note book, a solar powered calculator (I was curious to see if it work or not at Hogwarts as in the books and movies there's no actual evidence either way) and I'd made sure that I had some money in some of the draws.

Inside a small and ornate box was a special phoenix feather quill gifted to me by Sol. Phoenix's feathers made for the best quills, and I hoped that my animal companion would give me more feathers in the future so that I could gift them to friends, if I ever made any.

That would take a while as Sol had been through a burning day less than a week ago, shortly after giving the feather, and while he was maturing fast, he only had so many feathers to spare even when he was mature. On the plus side I was sure that his ashes, which I had carefully gathered, would have some interesting properties when used in potions.

Of course I would have to be very careful with this supply as burning days didn't come about very often, and I would need some ash for myself, when I began experimenting. I'd like some tears as well, but Phoenix's didn't cry unless they were actually sad, and I had no desire to hurt my new familiar.

Sol appeared as my thoughts had summon him and passed me a note he had in his beak. It was a reply from the Deputy Headmistress who had finally gotten around to replying to me about my query concerning bringing a phoenix to school.

She'd assumed that I was playing some sort of joke, and had wrote me a letter saying that she didn't appreciate that sort of thing. So I'd sent her another letter and had Sol deliver it directly to her.

Which led to her sending a letter back to me apologising for earlier letter, and assuring me that my Phoenix would be most welcome at the school.

"Uniform, shoes, casual clothing, socks and yes plenty of underpants" I said.

Adele just had to giggle upon hearing that.

My books were all in the trunk and in order, this was very important as while Hogwarts had a huge library I didn't know how many books could be taken out of the library, and owning my own was better.

I had my Jump Chan given expandable pouch crammed full of thing I might need, which had changed form. It currently looked like mokeskin pouches that the local magic users used as expandable pouches.

"Let us go, we don't wént you to miss ze train" Adele was now saying.

I'd just have to hope that the one thing I had forgotten wasn't that important, or that I could acquire it elsewhere.

(Line Break)

**Lanbedr. Muggle World.**

Adele decided that we would take the Knight Bus to the train station, not because it was the best way to get around, but because it was also an emergency service of sorts. If I ever got lost I could summon the Knight Bus and take it home.

My Au Pair also decided that I would summon the Bus so that she could see that I could summon it if required. So I raised my wand into the air and waited for something to happen. Which it soon did.

With a loud CRACK the bus appeared before me in all its bright purple multi-deck splendour. I jumped back instinctively, and yet the thing nearly took half my arm off as I pulled the limb out of the way in time.

The door of the bus opened and an ancient man with coke bottle glasses peered at me. I wondered why wizards, who could regrow bones with a potion and fly around on bits of wood, couldn't fix people's eyesight. That was another thing I could look into.

"Where you headed to?" he asked.

Adele nudged me forwards and we boarded the Knight Bus.

"King's Cross Station please" I said as I dropped the coins on the tray before the driver.

Wasn't there suppose to be a conductor called Stunpike or something like that. Maybe he'd didn't work on the bus yet.

I dragged my trunk into the aisle and sat down. There was an old woman in a fluffy pink nightgown in the back row. I could see the edge of her bunny slippers peaking out of bottom of the robe. There was also a younger man in a business suit, he had a briefcase and was reading the paper. He was a Ministry worker I didn't doubt.

"Keep your hands, feet, and body inside the moving vehicle at all times!" the driver yelled.

As soon as the bus started up I was flung from my seat into the side of the bus. None of the chair were actually bolted down, so they all moved about as if possessed by demons of some sort. I vaguely recalled beds in the movie, perhaps the chairs got swapped for beds once it got dark.

The old woman with the bunny slippers woman clapped happily and looked like she was having the time of her life. The younger man in a business suit kept calmly reading his newspaper as if nothing was happening.

These people had to be insane, this was no way to travel. Until I learned to teleport on my own I was having Sol take me places, or at the very least I was going to use the Floo network.

"This is not funny" I said to Adele.

She had to be sadist if she though a child getting smacked around the inside of a bus was anything to laugh at.

"Next stop. Ministry of Magic!" the driver called out.

When the bus stopped I was pretty sure that I chipped a tooth. They better have good dentists in this world.

(Line Break)

**King's Cross Station. Muggle Britain. **

When finally Adele and I made it to King's Cross I was not in the best of states. My hair was a mess and my clothes looked as if I'd slept in them. Thankfully I had the evercleanse perk and an Au Pair who promised to fix everything once were out of view of the non-magical human population.

Even worse than what happened to me was that one of the metal parts of my trunk was a little dinged. It was suppose to be enchanted so that it couldn't be damaged, yet there was a dent. This demon bus had to have some strange powers.

It was with shaky legs that I dragged my trunk from the bus. I didn't bother to look back as it jolted away as soon as my trunk and I cleared the door. None of the muggles milling about seem to have noticed the purple blur.

I'd been to train stations a number of times during my first life, including Paddington station, which sadly did lack in talking bears. This version of King's Cross looked nicer than I remembered. Less litter and there were no homeless people about.

Despite the delay this morning I was much too early to catch any glimpses of Harry Potter or the Weasleys, which was a good think in my view, so I counted out the platforms until I found the 9th and 10th.

The entryway looked like an ordinary wall to me, so I had to wonder, did ever muggles accidental lean on it? Perhaps the entrance only opened on certain days at certain times and there was some sort of Charm on the wall that kept Muggles from touching it.

I shuffled closely and tried to nonchalantly look around. No one was looking this way. I poked a finger near the barrier. It went through, and I didn't feel anything. Perhaps it was a magical version of a hologram. I could create holograms both solid and permeable so I knew that this sort of thing was possible.

My Au Pair pushed me forward, as she did I closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was on another platform. Yet I was pretty sure that I was still in King's Cross, which raised all sorts of questions that I wasn't even sure that I had words to ask in. Would any wizard understand me if I asked about dimensional engineering?

The Hogwarts Express lay before me, gleaming in the morning sun. The platform was already crowded. Parents were hugging their offspring, and children of all ages were running about like the sugared upped runts that they really were.

I could see a line forming at one of the loading platforms. The House Elves might unload the stuff when we arrived, but they didn't put the stuff on the train. Also I'd been told that you couldn't shrink a trunk if it was bigger on the inside for some reason. Apparently it would explode and scatter my possessions about, which I didn't want.

As I loaded my school stuff I looked around for any famous faces, I could see the top of what might be Hermione Granger's curly brown hair, but I really wasn't sure, and I didn't want to do anything stalker like by seeking her out. I would met her in good time, and then decide if I should groom her as a companion.

Once Adele had fussed over me, which involved her speaking French a lot, which I understood, and boob meets face mashing, as well as some tears, form her of course.

Which undid most of the work she did trying to groom with my magic, in order to undo the damage done to me while taking the Knight Bus. As a boy I'd always looked a big scruffy, but in a cute way.

I knew that when puberty hit things would be different, but thanks to the Evercleanse perk I'd gotten as a body mod at least I didn't have to worry about BO, or much about ache. Even if I did there were potions to deal with that sort of thing.

After getting onto the train I picked an empty compartment, and upon sitting down I found that there sets were a rich brown leather as well as very comfy. Which was good as I'd be sitting on them for some time to come.

Rather suddenly the compartment opened, a group of older boys looked at me and then closed it again. Then a group of even older boys and girls looked at me and then closed it again. This happened a couple times, and I was left wondering if I smelt bad or something.

Finally, a boy opened the compartment who looked to be my age. He had brown hair, and was a bit chubby. I knew who he was right away, and it seemed that the important characters appeared as they did in the films, which would help me recognise them.

"Can I sit here? I don't know very many people yet" the body requested.

I just nodded, and went back to the book I'd been reading last night, which I'd stored in my pouch. Hogwarts: A History was an interesting book because it mentioned many of the more silly school rules that different Headmasters had introduced over the centuries, and of course these rules would have loopholes and such. A good Jumper always looked for the loopholes.

"Hi um... my name's Neville Longbottom" said the lad.

He held out his hand so I reached over and shook it. Once upon a time I might have been star struck, or something like that, but those days were long gone.

"I'm Got... I mean Damien Pendragon" I replied.

The compartment opened again.

"Oh thank goodness! I've been looking for you everywhere!" a girl shouted.

I assumed that this was Morgana, but in order to be one hundred percent sure I spoke into her mind, and she replied. I had worried that gaining Occlumency might prevented us from conversing mentally, but apparently it did not.

From my reading on the subject I knew that the most basic form of Occlumency, involves clearing one's mind, making it "blank and empty", in order to prevent a Legilimens from perceiving one's emotions and thoughts.

More advanced Occlumency involves suppressing only the thoughts, emotions, and memories that would contradict whatever it is an Occlumens wishes a Legilimens to believe; hence, it is not obvious that Occlumency is being used even if the person is lying.

It requires a great deal of willpower, as with resisting the Imperius Curse, as well as a high degree of mental and emotional discipline. It is also one method of resisting the influence of Veritaserum, but that was very advanced stuff.

Morgana, Serana and I didn't have to put any effort to our Occlumency as we'd gotten as skill from Jump Chain, but I hadn't tested this. Morgana should be able to as she was a Legilimens.

"This is my cousin, Morgana Pendragon" I introduced "Morgana this is Neville Longbottom"

Neville smiled at her awkwardly, he was socially awkward to say the least, and I doubted it helped that Morgana was a pretty girl. I could see how this young lady before me could grow up to the Morgana I knew.

"Longbottom, it must be you she mentioned, your grandmother, the one whose always wearing hats with dead birds on them. My grandmother dragged me to one of your grandmother's horrid tea parties once" Morgana mentioned "I had to sit there and listen to them chat away for hours, and she mentioned she had a grandson going to Hogwarts this year".

The compartment opened again, and another girl entered, this had to be Serana as she had my former owl in a cage. I'd sent her mail using the bird and then told her to keep it. I didn't know how she'd convinced her Muggle parents to let her keep the bird, but Serana was a centuries old vampire, even if she didn't currently look like one, so I was sure she'd have thought of something.

"I'm Serana Volkihar" she introduced.

She must have said that in order to confirm that this actually was here because unlike Morgana I couldn't talk into her mind.

Reaching out with the Force I was able to sense Serana as part of the Force far more clearly than ever before, she felt right, as did everyone else, nothing strong in the darkside or the lightside on this train, at least nothing that I could detect.

Before long we were all sitting down and discussing things. Serana and Morgana we're doing a great job of pretending to be 11 year old girls, which they were really, at least in some sense. I got bored of their nattering and decided to some reading. Leaving Longbottom to suffer in silence. At least until he managed to lose his toad.

(Line Break)

**Train Station. Wizarding Britain**.

By the time we had reached our destination, night had fallen and the small station we'd arrived at had been largely deserted, despite this meaning that a lot of children were left unsupervised by any real adults

There was a village here if the many lights and the occasional smoking chimney were anything to go by. I remembered that it was called Hogsmede, and that students in 3rd year and above could visit the place on certain weekends.

Most of the first-years soon had a dumbfounded look on their faces, and that was because of the half-giant, who I knew to be called Hagrid, who was soon leading us towards a small fleet of boats that were by the lake.

He was at twice as tall as a normal man and wider, he wore a large leather and fur coat, which only made him seem bigger, and he had dark hair that could be best be described as a rat's nest. Which was an odd phrase as did rats even have nests?

"So, who is he?" Serana asked.

Unlike Morgana and I, Serana had never read the books. I didn't recall Morgana ever reading them, but I must have gotten a electronic version of them somewhere in my records, along the way.

This put Serana at a disadvantage, but no more than other Muggleborn student, and I could get her a copy of the books. Her ignorance would actually make her cover story more believable, and she had read some of my files so she'd wouldn't be surprised by everything.

"He is the Keeper of Keys and Grounds for Hogwarts" I told her "He looks after the animals here at the school".

And possibly did other things that I didn't know about. I knew that he did the odd chore for Dumbledore, whom Hagrid idolised the Headmaster as he'd set Hagrid up with the groundskeeper job after Hagrid had been unfairly expelled.

"Not what I meant" the vampire in human form said "What species is he?".

"He's a half giant" I explained.

That should have raised even more questions, however we were soon getting into the little boats, and this required our attention.

The waters of the lake were black and ominous, and full of life according to my Force senses. Which wasn't shocking as I knew about the Giant Squid that lived here, and there was a whole village of mer-people down there as well.

As for the small, oar-less boats, they didn't seem safe enough to me, but I figured that when you could alter reality by waving a fancy stick and saying funny words, that safety equipment, like say those jackets that make you float in water, weren't as much of a concern as they would be for Muggles.

After Hagrid tapped his own boat once with an umbrella, which I knew contained the remains of his snapped wand, the whole small fleet started moving towards the castle. No words, no lights, no fuss.

At least not until the giant squid made an appearance, and since I'd ended up in a boat with Neville Longbottom I figured it best to use my Force powers to command the creature to leave us alone. I couldn't control the huge animal like I would have been able too when I had full access to my abilities, but I was able to gently encourage it go elsewhere.

About a minute later Hogwarts appeared through the mists ahead, although in truth we'd moved closer to it.

Each and every first-year stared at it, their eyes wide, I was less impressed than the others, as I'd seen Camelot, Atlantis, and The Citadel in the Mass Effect galaxy, as well as many other impressive sights, but still I spent some time admiring the view. The castle was all lit up and attractive to look at.

As small fleet of boats approached the foothills of the massive rocks that the castle was built upon, and there was no sign of a boat house, instead we entered a cave, and this seemed wrong to me. Hadn't Voldemort killed Snape in a boat house by the lake?

Soon enough, we reached an underground boat bay which was illuminated by torches that had burst into flame on their own as we approach. From here I could stairs, they must led into the castle. This was a minor difference, so I knew that other things might not match the memory of the movies. This bit was from the books I felt sure of it.

We all followed the half-giant to the entrance of the Great Hall, and here were met by a woman I knew to be the deputy headmistress.

"Tha firs' year students, Professor McGonagal" declared Hagrid.

She inspected us for a moment.

"Follow me, everyone" she then ordered.

This was also different than expected because I could remember that the students should have been alone at this point in the books. This universe seem to have elements from both the books and movies, while not exactly lining up with either. How interesting.

The Great Hall more than justified its name; it was the size of a cathedral, and just as elaborate. There were five big tables within the massive room, four the students who were divided in the houses, and one for the staff.

Candles hung on their own accord in mid-air, there had to be hundreds of them, and filled the vast space with a soft light, without dripping a single drop of wax on anyone or anything. It was charming in a primitive way.

I noticed the dining plates, the silverware and glasses that waited to be filled. They had be worth a fortune even if they hadn't been enchanted. I wondered if any muggleborn had ever thought about stealing them and selling them at an antique shop.

The most impressive and magical sight of them all was the night sky that seemed to have been brought inside and hung overhead. Even someone who'd read all about it, (and I could hear a certain bushy haired witch mentioning that she had) would be astounded by the site.

Many faces stared down at the us first-years as we were marched between the tables and towards the Sorting Hat, the shabby looking thing was now right in front of me. I had to wonder how it would react to Morgana, Serana and I since we'd chosen our Houses.

Very soon we'd find out, and I had to wonder if it would somehow go horribly wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year **

**Part 4**

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

"Ravenclaw!" the Hat suddenly cried.

Unlike Mr. Potter, who had received nothing less than a standing ovation upon his sorting into the house of Gryffindor, the newest addition to Ravenclaw got only stares. More than a few of his students, Filius Flitwick, was concerned to note, seemed to shy away from the young boy.

Not that they were totally to blame, never in all his years at this school, as both teacher and student, had the Sorting Hat ever called out the name before it was placed on someone's head.

Some students, such as the Malfoy lad, barely needed for the hat to be placed on his head at all before he was Sorted, and Potter had needed more time than anyone else, but the Hat had Sorted them the way it was suppose to.

This strangeness had caused most of the people in the Great Hall to start whispering to each other, and when the Deputy Headmistress attempted to restore order by calling for the next child in line, the same thing happened again with the boy's cousin a girl called Morgana Pendragon.

The Hat yelled out for her to go to the house of lions before it touched a hair on her head, as if it had been commanded to by outside force. At least it reaction to this happening the second time was puzzlement rather than concern.

Given that the two students were related, distant cousins Flitwick guessed given their lack of resemblance while sharing of a surname name, it could be something to do with their family, only this theory was proven wrong when a student that was not a Pendragon wasn't correctly Sorted either.

Flitwick wondered if the Serana girl, whose surname made her sound more like a Durmstrang student rather than Hogwarts one, could be distantly related to the Pendragons in some way, despite her Muggleborn status.

It was possible, the half goblin remembered reading a paper written by one of his former students, a Muggleborn who had some theory about their being a special gene that was responsible for the gift of magic.

This Serana girl was Muggleborn, Flitwick knew this as a list of student names and their blood status was made available for all the heads of houses, not that Flitwick cared much for blood status, but he did like having the information so that he see the mix of students his house had.

Her theory had been that the squips had this gene, but it was defective, and that the squips who went on to marry Muggles, having been encouraged to live in that world, would pass on the gene, which would become active again some generations later, producing a Muggleborn witch or wizard.

No proof had ever been offered to support this claim, but Flitwick had found the idea to be intriguing. Perhaps this Serana, who was Sorted into Hufflepuff before the Hat ever touched her head, was descended from a squip that had been born in the Pendragon family before leaving for the Muggleworld.

Whatever the reason the half-human would keep an eye on these students, as would other members of staff, of that he could be sure.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

After Dumbledore's speech, which mentioned the third floor corridor, certain death, the Forbidden Forest, which was as the name suggested, forbidden, and something to the caretaker wanting to suck all the fun out of life, the students retired to the dorms.

Upon entering Ravenclaw tower, many of the first years had spread out throughout the Common Area. While many had ooo'd and aah'd at the place, before running their hands along the book cases or exchanged words with the portraits of famous Ravenclaws, while other ran up the stairs to the dormitories above, I headed towards the fireplace.

I took a seat by the fire and I reached into my 'Mokeskin pouch' for my thermos of hot chocolate, it was suppose have been tea, but Adele wouldn't let me have caffeine, but on the plus side my special pouch kept the temperature of my drink stable, which was good because even a decent thermos can't keep a drink hot all day.

My loathing for butterbeer and pumpkin juice had led to me carrying my own drinks around. It was pretty simple to get the thermos cleaned and refilled, my home's house elf did it. I'd tried summoning the creature, but that required knowing its name, and no one knew it. Also since a good house elf went unseen I'd not been able to ask it.

Not that this was a big problem as I could just buy one when I became an adult, and if I needed to bypass wards, well there were other ways of doing that.

Once I poured out my drink, I reached back into my bag again for a book, just as Sol appeared, the Phoenix had very rapidly recovered from his burning day, and was in fine condition.

I didn't know where he'd been all day, and I wouldn't have asked him even if I could as this species of magical bird, there were more than a few, were very independent creatures that did as they pleased. I assumed that he went look for food and did his business somewhere outdoors, which was good as he rarely bugged me for treats and didn't make a mess of the carpet.

"You go," one of the boys was currently saying.

From the sorting I knew that his name was Anthony Goldstein, but that was all I knew about, aside from him being a wizard in Ravenclaw House. I was pretty sure that he'd remain an unimportant background character.

"No, _you_ go," replied a girl named

She had to be Sue Li, I was no racist, I'd be around way to many aliens to care about the skin tone of anyone, but she was only Asian girl I'd seen Sorted so it was not hard to figure out her name.

The young woman proved that she had the bravery that was normally the sort after virtue of a certain other school house when she came over to talk to me, even when other students kept their distance.

No doubt the odd mixture of the Sorting Hat's behaviour and the sudden appearance of a Phoenix was too much of a temptation for the Ravenclaws, and they just had to find out more.

"Hello Damien," Sue began by saying "We were just wondering…"

She stopped speaking when Sol began singing. It had a much greater affect on her than it had on me or Adele, but Sue was actually as innocent as she look. As for me I was not evil so the song didn't make me feel uncomfortable, but while it was pleasant, it didn't have a profound of an affect on me as it appeared to have on my dorm mates.

"Sue Li?" I asked "You had a question".

She was now realising that she'd fallen silent.

"We were just wondering, see, because, well, the Hat, it shouldn't…_do_ that" she was able to say "Is it because of the phoenix?".

By now, others had begun to look at me, or rather at Sol, they were unsettled about my Sorting, but now that they were seeing me with a Phoenix, which even the Purebloods wouldn't have seen before, they didn't know what to do with this new information, they couldn't decide how to feel about me.

"Yes the fact that the Sorting Hat was acting odd with me is connected to the fact that I have a Phoenix familiar" I said.

This removed what tension that Sol's song hadn't driven away. It was common knowledge that Phoenix's were creatures of good magic, the lightside, so they must all be assuming that the Phoenix had done something at the Sorting and for good reason.

Also it wasn't really a lie since the reason for the odd Sorting was Jump Chain, which had also provided me with the magical bird, so the two things were connected even if one wasn't actually a result of the other.

No one commented that my explanation in no way actually explained the odd behaviour of the hat, or why it happened twice more in the same Sorting. I wondered what the Hat would say on the matter to the Headmaster, hopefully I wouldn't attract his attention in the future as that could get me into all kinds of trouble.

In short order the weirdness of my Sorting was forgotten, at least by the girls of the Ravenclaw house, who all wanted to pet my bird, turns out that Phoenix birds are total babe magnets. Hopefully the novelty of him wouldn't wear off before Sol's presence could help get in good with some the young women in this school, in future years of course.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

"Remember, just as I told you," Filius Flitwick said as he walked amongst his newest class, which was made of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw together, "Swish…and flick! Just swish…and…"

He stopped as he noticed a lone feather not only flying through the air, but also doing loops and other tricks.

"Very _good_, Mr. Pendragon!" praised the teacher "5 points for our house. Very good indeed!".

Clearly the boy was a natural, and he must have figured out that the 'no magic outside of school' rule didn't apply until you actually arrived at Hogwarts as he must have been able to practice, but there was no need to mention that.

That law had not actually been passed to help keep the Wizarding World hidden from the Muggles, at least not totally, it had actually been created to help even things out between those that came from Magical families and those that didn't when it came to schooling. Not this really worked.

"Come now, everyone," he turned about, looking at the rest of his students, "Please, everyone, please, let us practice and learn together! Swish…and flick!"

This when the old teacher realised something, every student in the room was performing the wand movement, and saying the words, every student other than Damien Pendragon, who wasn't even swishing the wand he was just using it to point were the feather should go, he also wasn't saying anything.

Students at this level didn't know that the movements and words weren't as important as they might think. Performing spells non-verbally was very difficult for children and required a good deal of practise, as well as concentration and mental discipline.

Different wand-woods also could also affect the performance of casting non-verbal magic. Many wands made from Dogwood are rather noisy, and refuse to perform non-verbal magic, whereas wands of Pine are some of the most sensitive to non-verbal magic.

Flitwick didn't know what kind of wand Damien was using, although it looked like Aspen to him, a fine wand for charms work and duelling, and he didn't think it mattered that much.

Casting his mind back to yesterday the old teacher did recall that Morgana Pendragon had been successful in making her feather float, she'd done even faster than the Muggleborn Granger, who was highly skilled as well.

Yes he would most certainly have to watch this one.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

Long before my first Astronomy lesson I learned that wizards were far behind muggles when it came to study of the stars at least in the more practical sense. They'd never even thought of going to the moon at least not a serious way. It should be simply enough really. They could defy gravity easily, and teleport in a variety of ways.

I pondered about what charms I'd read about that could be cast to aid in space travel, as I headed up the Astronomy lesson, which was at the highest tower in the castle right next to the Owlerly. We had to trudge up ten flights of steps just to get there.

The classroom was open to the stars and there was only an ancient stone parapet protecting us from falling to our deaths, assuming that we couldn't all bounce when we hit the ground. I was sure that Neville Longbottom did that as a child, well as a smaller child.

I noted that there were some desks strewn about the area as we needed something to lean on when filling out charts. I also saw that there was another door going back down the tower (other than the one we came up) that was probably Sinistra's office.

Professor Sinistra was a tall, modestly attractive witch, with dark hair, eyes, and skin. I wouldn't kick her out of bed, not that I wanted anyone in my bed these days, but that would always be the case.

Currently the teacher stood in the middle of the room with her arms folded. Her posture was rim-rod straight and her robes looked starched. She looked more the strict school teacher than McGonnagall did, which I guessed had to do with her age. She couldn't be very old when compared to some of the other teachers, and might be over compensating for that by trying to be as professional as possible.

"Set up your telescopes!" Sinistra called out "No time wasting".

I fumbled with getting my telescope and school book out. I probably should have practised putting this thing together beforehand. However I just hadn't cared enough to try, or to read much on the subject.

Given what I'd done in the past just looking at the stars didn't interest me. I'd walked on many alien worlds and had traversed galaxies, so all of this bored me.

Sinistra started us off by showing us how to properly focus on objects with our telescope and then set out having us find the brightest light in the night sky, which was of course the moon. I'd been to the moon, it wasn't that interesting, but I'd least I'd done it.

Which I figured was going to be the tone for this subject over the next fire years. We look, we'd read about it, but no one here would ever actually reach for the stars.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

"Gred, Forge!" I called out.

The two red headed twins stopped upon hearing those words, and turned to face me, before making some remark about first years and their cheek. I ignored this as I had important business to discuss with these two 'gentlemen'.

It was actually pretty hard to track down people from a school house that wasn't your own, at least I shared classes with Hufflepuffs, meaning that keeping tabs on Serana didn't turn out to be much work, but I'd barely seen Morgana since the term began, nor had I spoken with Neville, who I had thought would be my friend.

"I want to buy the map from you" I told the young wizards.

They exchanged looks.

"What map?" one of them asked.

I didn't know which of them was which, and nor did I care enough to find out. They meant little to me. Perhaps later I would have a use for them, but for now there was only one thing I needed from them.

"The Marauder's Map" I said "Don't bother denying it I know all about it. I even know the real names of those who made it".

They exchanged looks again. Was twin telepathy a real thing in this world? Again this was something to look into at a later date.

"Why do you want it?" one of them asked.

That was not their concern, although the answer should be self evident.

"How much do you want for it?" I asked "I have gold, or something a little more exotic perhaps".

I held up a small bottle of Phoenix ash.

"A couple of smart lads like you could figure out something to do with this" I said "Or perhaps you prefer something else in trade".

They didn't ask what the ash was, they must have been able to figure it out. By now everyone in the school knew about Sol, he went around getting attention from all the girls. I'd be jealous if I was capable of caring about such things.

"I don't know" one twin said "It won't be cheap".

Money didn't concern me, but I resisted the urge to offer a lot of it as they might demand more, or come with more things to sell that I wouldn't need. Best to get this deal over and done with as quickly as possible.

"Ten Galleons" I was told.

Given the exchange rate, which I had checked, a Galleon was worth between five and six muggle British pounds, depending on the exchange rate, and in 1991 five pounds went a lot further than it would in years to come. They were asking an eleven year old boy for fifty pounds. Which was not as reasonable offer, maybe they just wanted to give me an unreasonable offer so that I couldn't pay so I'd give up, or they might be expecting me barter.

"2 galleons and the ash" I offered.

Ten pounds and the ash was a fair offer for the map, which the twins would give away a couple of years from now, it would have less value then because they'd have time to copy it, at least in part.

"5 and the ash" was the counter offer.

Steep, but worth it. 25 pounds in cash and more for the ash, which you couldn't buy anywhere.

"Okay give me the map" I said.

Clearly they weren't willing to part with it right now.

"If you can wait a few days we'll knock off a Galleon, but only if you tell us the real names of the people who made the map"

While I could do that I didn't want them to know that the map was Harry's by right since he was Padfoot's son. I had to handle this carefully. However they didn't know Potter at this point so perhaps it didn't matter.

Oddly they didn't remark that the man known to some as Wormtail was sharing a dorm with their brother, but they were kids, and they had no reason to care about a person they would simply assume to be in Ron's year and house. Plus it might now show Wormtail if he was in Ron's pocket.

They might discover Wormtail's presence, but Harry never did when he had the map, and he was in that dorm. Did Wormtail not register when he was in his rat form? Didn't he pass Harry in a corridor while in rat form one time?

No wait didn't Scabbers vanish for the most part when Harry had the map?

I would discover for myself soon enough, and I could capture Wormtail. That was part of my plan, and I had things well in hand.

If the twins exposed Wormtail then it might work out better for me as no one would connect the event to me, I already had enough attention from the teachers, but they could have exposed Pettigrew they would have.

No sense letting Black suffer if I could so easily get him freed.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Things had been going well for me since arriving at this school, the odd behaviour of the Sorting Hat had been forgotten rapidly, at least by the student body, and I was getting heaps of praises from my teachers now that my wand and had finally come to an understanding.

It had taken me a while to fully bond with the wand like I had with my lightsaber, or to an extent with Caliburn, but the results were well worth it.

Of course something came a long to end my time of ease, and that was a Force Vision, which I sometimes got, and this time the vision had shown me Hermioine Granger getting murdered by a troll.

I hadn't seen enough to be totally sure that it would happened in the girl's bathroom, or on Halloween, and while it most likely would as certain events seemed to destined to happen regardless of my presence, such as the death of Jedi Master Jinn on Naboo, again I couldn't be sure.

Also if Ron and Harry saved her on Halloween, like they were supposed to, then the Force wouldn't bother warning me, or at least I didn't think it would, no one really understood exactly how the Forced worked, and what you could do with it, but I knew to know that the Force didn't grant you visions of things that would work out for best if you did nothing.

So I'd decided to keep an eye on the bushy haired Muggleborn, and while I could make invisibility potions, using magic from Skyrim, I had a limited supply of vampire dust, so rather than waste it I made use of my Spectre training, such as it was, to make myself as unseen as possible.

Alas my ninja skills were rusty and my Spectre mentor had not been the most subtle of people, so I just hung out in the library piled some books on a table, and hide behind them as best I could. Which also gave me something to read.

I didn't need to watch Granger closely as she spent a lot of time in this part of the school, and once I had the map I could spy on her more easily. Which sounded much creepier than it actually was.

The books around me ranged a great deal on subjects, I had texts on dragons, broom manufacture, wand lore, history not just of Hogwarts but the rest of the magical world, and plenty more besides.

Soon the flaw in my plan to seamlessly blend it was shown to me when the person I was suppose to watching over without ever getting seen came over and talked to me. I retrospect I really should have asked a certain drell I once knew to teach me some tricks about acting all sneaky.

_"Is that a copy of An __Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe"_ I was asked "I've been asking the librarian, but she told me that the school doesn't have a copy".

Truthfully I'd not really been reading, just pretending to, and I didn't know which of my books it was, only that it had been in my pouch. For some reason I'd take a book out of my pouch despite having an extensive collection of books all around me.

"If that's what it says on the cover then it is" I told the girl.

Always I got a kick of telling the truth, but not always the whole truth.

"Why, do you want to borrow it?" I asked.

I could see the struggle on her face, she really wanted to read the book, which couldn't be at all interesting, yet she didn't want to accept it since she didn't know me. She might even think I was a bully who would deny her the book once she admitted that she wanted it.

"Yes" she finally said.

I passed her the book, and rather than walk away she sat down at the table, and began to read. Which seemed odd until I realised that she might have already forgotten that I was sitting right here since she now had the book she so badly wanted

What an odd girl.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Not long into my first potion lesson it had become clear to me that Snape was a bad man, and a terrible teacher, some people might see him as a tragic figure, who was badly bullied as a child, a man who lost the woman he loved.

I'd been bullied when at school, and I'd had felt the sting of unrequited love, but I hadn't let it turn me into a total ass hole. Besides the guy was a Death Eater, and while he did turn spy, he did only because of the threat to Lily Potter.

Of course I knew that he wasn't actually evil, but I simply wasn't going to put with him for the next seven years, so as soon as my lesson ended on my second week here at Hogwarts, I asked Serana, who as a Hufflepuff shared a potions class with me, to go on ahead while I went back to the classroom.

On the way back I took out a small bottle of phoenix ash, and then strode into the classroom, I'd considered switching to my adult form, as I doubted that my implants would break down right away, my solar powered calculator had actually lasted a few days before it stopped working, but Morgana wanted to keep our adult selves separate from the lives of our child selves, and I was willing to go along with this, for now.

Not that I needed to be an adult for this, as I got Snape's attention by showing him the ash, he seemed very interested in acquiring some, guess Dumbledore never shared his, and while he took a moment to examine some of the ash, I used my special key to turn to door to the potion supply cupboard, into a way into Cosmic Warehouse.

"Pendragon, what are you doing in there!" Snape called out.

As I'd known he would, the so called Professor followed me, and when he was distracted by the sight I had one of the robots that defended this place stun the wizard, who was too shocked to react.

Once that was done, it was a simple matter to have the robots place the stunned man in an empty stasis pod. I could have killed him, but murdering a school teacher, even a cruel one, was a bit too evil for me.

On a more practical level, the man had been a Death Eater, so he would have knowledge of that organisation, and that could be of benefit to me later.

I had no intention of taking Snape with me to the next setting, so I would set him free, with a modified memory, just before I left. If he went back to teaching at that point it was no concern of mine as I wouldn't have any children for him to torment.

Once Snape was safely secured away I left the Warehouse and raced to catch up with my classmates who'd be heading for Great Hall for dinner.

I knew that Snape's absence would be noted sooner or later, and that someone would have noticed the fact that I'd gone back to the classroom, which why I'd shown Snape the ash, the bottle was still on the desk, it was a sacrifice to lose it, but if asked I'd say that I went back to give the bottle to the Potion's Master as I though he might find it useful in his work. People might think I'd been trying to suck up to Snape, but they wouldn't think I'd done him any harm.

Without my mind protection I'd never get away with what I'd just done because Dumbledore would have gotten the truth out of me, however I'd chosen my skills for this Jump very well.

Actually Morgana had, and while I doubted she'd intended for me to remove teachers from the school, I didn't think she'd mind if she ever found out, and she would suspect me right away because she knew that I didn't like bullies.

We could talk about that later if needs be, for now I wanted to eat my dinner, and while many bad things could be said about Hogwarts, no one complained about the food, although I'd found that I still didn't care at all for pumpkin juice.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Hermione was not quite looking for Damien when she next visited the library, but if her feet happened to lead her in the direction of the table which he often made use of then that was perfectly all right with her. Besides he might have the book she'd been reading the last time, and she should return it at some point.

It wasn't as if she had found many other people to talk to lately, even Harry Potter had proved rather more difficult to connect with than she'd hoped. She'd read so much about him but none of it had helped her whatsoever, worse it seemed that the books may have exaggerated certain aspects about the young hero.

She put that out of her mind as the smell of the books hit her. It was a strange thing to find appealing, but the scent given off by paper and parchment always made her happy. Other girls were drawn to jewellery, clothes and chocolate, she liked the written word.

After looking around for a moment she spotted the boy who was her friend? Acquaintance? Study Partner?. It was hard to judge as she had no classes with him, class pairings were always between his House and Hufflepuff while she got to experience the 'good graces' of the Slytherins.

Thinking on she realised that this wouldn't always be the case, once they reached the third year they might share classes from then on since they would have elective classes.

"Hey, Granger" Damien Pendragon greeted "How are you doing today?".

She'd not even realised that she walked over to the boy's table.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," she said.

Damien looked up from some notes he was taking.

"Random question, what's your wand's core?" he asked.

She didn't know why he wanted to know, but she saw no reason not to supply this information.

"My wand is 10¾ inches, it is made from vine wood, and it contains dragon heartstring" she answered, giving more information that required.

They didn't actually _talk_, after that, it was a library after all. Yet the silence wasn't a problem as they both just sat and read or did homework, it was pleasant.


	5. Chapter 5

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 5**

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

It didn't take me long to find and then learn the Human-presence-revealing Spell (_Homenum Revelio_) A charm which when cast correctly reveals human presences in the surrounding environment. The spell that I'd needed to learn in order to expose the rat Scabbers as the Death Eater Peter Pettigrew.

Finding the rat was simple enough now that I had the map. The twins had handed it over for the amount we'd agreed upon, which was about 20 muggle pounds and vial of Phoenix ash, which could be worth hundreds of pounds to the right person.

I'd gotten the map cheaply all things considered, and it was worth every knut as I was now able to track everyone in the castle, not in a creepy way, this map would help me keep people safe, and let me avoid annoying people.

People like that bloody ghost thing called Peeves, he'd throw a water balloon that been fully of paint right at me. Peeves looked like a little man with wickedly slanted, orange eyes, dressed in loud, outlandish clothes including a bell-covered hat and an orange bow tie.

Compared to the other ghosts here in the castle, he was solid-looking, not pearly white and transparent. He was capable of flight and intangibility, like a ghost, but could also affect solid objects and make himself invisible. Unlike the ghosts, he could be affected by magic.

However Peeves could not be killed despite not being dead, because he was amortal, which was the principal common trait of non-beings. The best-known examples of creatures in this state were Poltergeists just like Peeves, in a book I'd read they were described as "indestructible spirits of chaos", and are known to differ from ghosts in that they were never alive at any time.

Boggarts, and Dementors were also creatures that were never truly alive to begin with and seemingly indestructible. Still I'd like to test that using Caliburn.

Knowing where Granger was at all times allowed me relax somewhat, and given that she spent nearly all her time either the common room, a classroom, her dorm room, or the library, she wasn't that hard to track.

I also couldn't resist keeping tabs on Morgana and Serana, who were both embracing their new lives with gusto as far as I could tell, they were always hanging out with other girls. No doubt because they'd been lonely children.

After ducking into an empty classroom I looked at the map, Pettigrew was with Potter and the ginger idiot, anyone who didn't know who Peter really was could be fooled into thinking that he was a classmate of Potter and the ginger moron, which was why the twins had never investigated Pettigrew.

While the animagus did sometimes disappear, he didn't register as a separate person when in Ron's pocket I figured, the rat did sometimes go off on his own. I didn't know why or to where, but given that Pettigrew had helped to make this map it made sense that he knew all the hidden passages and so on. He might be sneaking off somewhere to spend time in his human form, or just to stretch his little legs.

Whatever the reason he was now coming down the corridor, like he had a few times just before lunch, and I was ready for him.

_"Homenum Revelio"_

The spell worked and while the rat stayed a rat he was easy to track, and I'd gotten a cage for him, from the Room of Requirement, which contained the lost and damage stuff from the thousand years that Hogwarts had been around.

It couldn't provide you with anything you desired, but the sheer amount of crap that had been dumped in their over the centuries ensured that if you needed something, like say a cage for small pet, you'd get it.

Using my mind powers I grabbed the Death Eater and got him into the cage. It would have been better to use the Summoning Charm, but that spell was proving harder to learn that expected. Besides it wasn't as if anyone would believe Wormtail if he told them I didn't use a wand to capture him.

Wormtail was now realising that something was wrong, and he attempted to squeeze his way out of his cage, and when I taunted the rodent he tried to bite me. He even attempted claw his way out.

"Ha, despite all your rage you are still just a rat in a cage" I teased.

I'd charmed the cage to be unbreakable, I didn't know if that meant you couldn't break it at all, or if magic could still destroy the cage, or how long such a spell would last, so with that in mind I headed right for the Great Hall. I had a murderer to expose.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. ****Wizarding World.**

As hoped Dumbledore was not here, he must be out looking for Snape or a replacement, but a certain Transfiguration Professor happened to be in her normal seat. I had no idea if the Dumbledore of this world was evil, overly trusting, or simply senile, but I didn't trust him. He didn't quite look like either film version, and his sense of fashion alone made me want to curse him.

"Sorry to bother you while you're eating Professor" I said to the cat animagus "But I think a student is in trouble".

That got her attention very quickly, she did care about her students.

"What on Earth do you mean Mr Pendragon, is someone hurt?" she asked.

I laid the cage on the table.

"To be honest I'm not totally sure" I said "I was trying out the Human-presence-revealing Spell, and I got an odd result. This rat registers as human".

Which was why I'd chosen this woman to expose the crook as if anyone could force Wormtail into his true form it would be another animagus.

"I know its possible to turn a person into an animal and I was wondering if any students have gone missing" I said next "Maybe someone was trying a bit of transfiguration and it won't wrong".

Animagi were few and far between, and while turning someone into an animal was a powerful bit of magic, it was not impossible for a student to learn.

The Deputy Headmistress took out her wand and cast the Human-presence-revealing Spell, which registered Wormtail as a human, by now 'Scabbers' was getting a bit frantic, and his owner had come forward.

"How strange" the Professor was saying "You were right to bring the rat to me Mr Pendragon, this could be a student, several have gone missing over the decades, but all turned up sooner or later, still its possible that someone has gone missing recently".

Ron Weasel, as I had mentally labelled him, protested upon hearing that.

"That's my rat!" he yelled out.

Everyone look at him.

"Your rat" said his head of house "How long have you had him?".

The boy explained about how Scabbers had been his brother's, and how he'd been passed down. Which only made the teacher more concerned. So she called over several other teachers who began examining the vermin.

By this time the rodent was starting to panic, I didn't need Force Empathy to sense it, and when the cage opened the rat ran for it. Ron attempted to catch the crook as it tried to escape, and when Wormtail got under one of the tables, a lot of girls started screaming.

I was about to attempt the summoning charm, but I didn't need to bother, my head of house was more than capable of such a feat, and soon the rat was exposed for what he really was.

"Heaven's above, is that Pettigrew!" I heard the deputy headmistress call out.

He tried to run again and several stunners hit him before the Death Eater could escape.

"I'll contact the Aurors" said one of the teachers whose name I didn't know.

While the students chatted away I heard Flitwick ask if this could have something to do with Snape's disappearance, it didn't, but it Wormtail got the blame for that, then all the better.

The only downside to him getting captured was that he could escape and come after me just like the drawback was suppose to cause to happen, but if it was Wormtail, then at least I would know what he was capable of doing.

If he did come after me I'd kill him. The only reason I'd not murdered the rat right away was because even if the Auroras (the dark wizard hunters) saw Pettigrew's body, that might not led to the freedom of Sirus Black since they could still believe that Black killed a load of muggles and that Wormtail had simply been hiding..

The dark mark would make it clear that Wormtai had been the enemy, but that still wouldn't prove Black innocent of those murders, it would just mean that they'd think he had a different motivation.

No Pettigrew had to be arrested and questioned, that was my plan, and since the Aurors were on their way that would be exactly what happened.

(Line Break)

**Cosmic Warehouse. **

The stasis pod open and I watched as Cameron opened her eyes, then she sat up and looked around for a moment before addressing me. Despite my attempt at disguise she knew right away who I was.

I was wearing dark grey robes and I had put on Vokun's mask that I'd gotten from my time in Skyrim just in case anyone saw my face. With the mask on it prevented any chance of anyone thinking that I might be somehow related the Damien Pendragon.

"How may I serve you, Master" she asked.

I'd had to sneak out of Hogwarts in order to find somewhere empty and intact so that I could open a door to this warehouse. Thankfully the Shrieking Shack had provided me with such a place.

"There is something I need for you to for me" I told the cyborg "I have some plans in motion, and you have a role to play in them".

Cameron got up out of the pod and knelt before me. Even for her this was a little strange, but to be fair she was programmed to keep me safe and happy, so she'd only be doing this if it was make me feel good. Which it kind of did.

"I am your to command, Master" she said.

This was sort of hot, however I had things to do, and couldn't afford to be away from Hogwarts for long.

"You must go to a place called Little Whingings, in Surrey, locate a street called Privet Drive and from there find the biggest residence you can for sale within a reasonable distance of that street" I commanded "But not to close to that street. Set up comfortable place to live as I might be spending time there, or have other companions doing so. We can expand our operations there as needed".

That wasn't all that I had to say.

"Once you find a suitable place to serve as a base for us begin to investigate a man called Vernon Dursley, he works for a company that makes drills called Grunnings, or something like that" I instructed "Use Cortana to acquire the funds you need and infiltrate that company. Learn all you can. When the time is right I'll want to destroy that man, but rather than kill him I want to do something much worse".

Vernon Dursely prided him on being as normal as can be. He had a job, a house, a wife and son, a family car, and so on. I would take that all away from and leave him a broken shell of a man.

The protection on the house, assuming they actually existed, could possibly prevent any sort of direct attack, but I doubted they'd defend against Vernon getting arrested for embezzling company funds, and maybe some other illegal business practices.

Cortana was centuries ahead of current computer technology, when the time was right she could easily lay a trail for the tax people to follow. I'd also make sure that the Dursely's lost their home, car and that Dudley couldn't go to the fancy school they'd sent him to.

Cruel perhaps, but I was not the good guy in this story, I decided how things would play out. The puppets danced to my tune.

"Avoid being seen as much as possible" I needlessly reminded her.

She was made to blend in so I had no to instruct her in such things.

"You can take my bike" I said to Cameron "My omni-tool and anything else you might need that will help in your mission".

I still had a motorbike from the second Jump which had just been gathering dust in the corner of the warehouse, or would have if there was any dust in here. I'd not gotten much use out if it, and that was a shame as I'd paid good CP for it.

"Once you're ready I'll escort you out of this village and you can be on your way" I told the cyborg "Little Whinging isn't a big place so I won't have much trouble finding you. If all goes to plan I should see you sometime around Christmas, be ready by then".

Cameron stood up and looked me in the eyes.

"I will complete my mission" she promised.

She quickly got to work, gathering what she would need, but not before replicating a leather outfit that would make her look stunning when she road the bike down south.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

I'd recently gotten a subscription to the Daily Prophet, and the Quibbler, because Luna Lovegood would be in my House next year and she was an awesome character, me reading her father's magazine would be a way of getting to know her better.

For now only Daily Prophet interested me, and as I sat down to breakfast my copy of the paper arrived. After picking up the newspaper, which almost ended up my bowl of porridge, I felt slightly giddy when I saw the main headline.

_**"Peter Pettigrew Alive! Black Innocent?"**_

Those words printed in large bold letters above a picture of a Wormtail getting dragged away somewhere by Auroras. I quickly opened the newspaper and started to read.

_'Peter Pettigrew, the man thought to have been killed by the Sirius Black was found alive yesterday at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Wizard has spent the last ten years hiding, making use of his unregistered rat animagus form. _

_An unnamed student discovered the rat, perhaps after noticing some odd behaviour, and brought it before his teachers, who quickly exposed the rat for who he really is. Aurors were swiftly called to the scene._

While everyone in the school knew it was I who had brought the rat to the attention of the staff, there was no mention of me in the article other than to acknowledge that a student was involved.

This suited me just fine, I was already getting enough attention as it was, and without Snape around the amount of House Points I'd gained from this one act should ensure that the snakes wouldn't win the cup this year.

Not that I cared about House Points, but I did care about getting a good potions teacher, as potions were a passion of Serana's and she had a talent for them. A proper potions master could nurture her talent as she learned of the potions of this world.

Slughorn would make a decent replacement and could be lured back into teaching by dangling Harry Potter in front of him. Dumbledore hadn't been seen much recently, and his absence had been noted, at least by me, before Wormtail's capture, I suspected that he was looking for Snape and trying to recruit Slughorn.

Potter was also not here, I suspected that he was at the Ministry and that someone was explaining to him exactly who Sirius Black happened to be. As Harry's godfather he had legal right to custody of Potter, and the Boy-Who-Lived would chose him over his aunt's family.

Perhaps I should do something to ensure that Potter had never had to go back to that place. I could burn down Number 4 Privet Drive, or something like that. I'd give the idea some thought.

_'Pettigrew was questioned under veritaserum and it was revealed that he had been fleeing from retribution after You-Know-Who's downfall, but not from fear of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Rather, he feared the Ministry would discover his part in aiding the Dark Lord! Ministry Aurors now believe that it was__ Pettigrew, not Sirius Black, who betrayed the location of the late Potter family to You-Know-Who!_

_In addition, Pettigrew has confessed to having been the real criminal behind the infamous Sirius Black massacre! By his own admission, he framed Black for the murders as a means to cover his escape as Black attempted to avenge James and Lily Potter. _

The article continued in the same style, mostly appearing to put the blame for the entire travesty on Barty Crouch Sr. Minister Fudge had moved fast, heaping the blame on his political opponents instead of trying to bury it.

Which was good for Black, but a bit worrying for me as I'd not thought that the wheel of governance would move this quickly. Fudge might not be the fool that I though him to be. This might be an issue for me should I ever become involved with Wizard Politics.

Then again this wasn't really a concern right now as I was an eleven year old boy, no one would consider me worthy of notice, no one outside the school anyway. The twins might figure out that the map they'd sold to me had something to do with this, but I doubted that they'd mention this to anyone and expose the existence of the map. If anything they should be grateful to me since Wormtail had been an unknown danger to their family

Most of the attention was on the Weasel boy, the annoying red headed chum of Potter was enjoying his time in the spotlight, it wouldn't last, and again this didn't bother me as the more people looking at him the less they looked at me.

I had enough to worry about with my flying lesson this Friday afternoon.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding Britain.**

Before I knew it Friday had come and with it, my first flying lesson, well actually this was the first practical lesson, we'd already covered theory and broom maintenance.

I'd not been looking forward to flying lessons. I'd never been fond of heights, and while the phobia tended to come and go, it had reared its ugly head a few times, then there were times when it should have bothered me and hadn't.

Which some people might see as odd given how much time I'd spent on space ships, but there is no up or down in space so no heights to worry about, although you could fall into a gravity well, but that was scary for very different reasons.

Morgana had decided to end this inconsistent fear by giving me the Perk of Qudditch star, which should make me a natural on the broom, so really I had nothing to worry about.

Before long the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws first years were gathered in a big clearing outside of the castle. The sky was gray and overcast but it was still pretty warm considering that we were in Scotland, I knew that it could get rather chilly in this part of the world, and windy too.

Madam Hooch strode into the clearing. She seemed spry to me as she walked towards us, but she was old looking, not Dumbledore old of course, and I had to wonder what happened to wizard and witches between leaving Hogwarts and becoming old looking, because there seemed to be very few magic users around between those two groups. Had Voldemort and his lackeys killed most of them? Or did the magic users of this world just spend a lot of their lives looking old?

"Good afternoon class. Now for many of you this will be your first real flying lesson, so listen closely. I will NOT tolerate any acting out or tomfoolery" we were warned "I have already had one injury this year and I will not have another one. You will get on your brooms when I tell you, you will get off your brooms when I tell you, and if for any reason I have to leave for a moment and one of you dares to get on your brooms I will have you in detention for the rest of the year! Is that clear?".

Unless we're good filers, then we get to be on a Quidditch team, or maybe that rule only applied to boys with the surname name: Potter.

"IS THAT CLEAR?" Madam Hooch demanded to know.

"Yes, Madam Hooch!" we all chorused loudly.

When she next spoke her tone was much more pleasant. I guessed that she was still upset about Longbottom getting hurt of her watch, and that neither Malfoy or Potter had been punished for breaking her rules. Harry had been rewarded for an act that would have gotten anyone else at least a week's worth of detention I was sure.

"Now flying can be wonderful, but it is also very dangerous" the coach was now saying "So remember to follow all of my instructions and I want no bullying".

I was sure that this class would be well behaved as the Hufflepuffs (which included Serana and her new girlfriends) got on with the Ravenclaw house, unlike other houses I could mention.

"Move to stand by your broom" we were instructed.

We did as we were told.

"Now first thing is to command your broom to your hand" was the next instruction "Hold your hand over the broom and say UP!"

I held my hand over the broom, and like I had many times with my Nimbus Two Thousand I instructed it to raise up into my hand. I didn't even bother to use words.

The broom raised up and smacked me in the mouth. This had never happened before, the broom had to be defective, perhaps I should donate some new ones to the school, not to a team but for these lessons.

Upon my second attempt the broom behaved, and before long Madam Hooch demonstrated the proper broom mounting technique and form. Which I already knew about having read ahead for this class.

"Now raise about five feet and then lower again on my whistle. Go up!"

She blew her whistle, and I raised about five feet in the air. The front of my broom handle wobbled a bit, but otherwise it behaved. Like wands these magical items seemed to have at least some will of their own.

"Lower!" the coach yelled.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle again and we headed down.

"Get on up and let's do it again" she said a moment later.

Which most of us managed.

"Repeat the drill again at your own pace until I tell you to stop!" we were told.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle and we repeated the drill several more times. It got easier over time, I wasn't as skilled as Potter, but I didn't make a fool of myself.

"Alright you're getting it. Now on my whistle, raise about twenty feet" it was ordered.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle yet again. I already loathed the noise. I'd hated P.E lessons when in school, but I didn't let that hold me back. I'd directed the course of galaxies, a flying bit of wood wasn't going to defeat me.

"Now, while there are nuances in every broom, steering left or right is simple. You simply have to lean in and..."

The lesson dragged on, and while I tried to pay attention I often failed, still I didn't get into trouble, that had to count for something. Also Serana seemed to handle herself well on a broom, but she could actually fly in one of her forms so that was no surprise.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Quirrel was already fifteen minutes late for Defense Against the Dark Arts class. It wasn't the first time he'd made us wait. It couldn't be easy stuffing a dark lord into a turban every morning, and then there was the garlic.

Before long Quirrelmort burst into the classroom, taking us all by surprise. As he stepped into the room his confident stride gave way to more meek movements. He really was a good actor, I looked forward to seeing him try to faint convincingly at Halloween.

The troll I didn't look forward to as I might have to deal with the creature while bringing more attention my way even if I didn't use the powers I'd gotten from worlds other than this one.

"P-Please p-put away everything b-but your quill and p-paper and we-e shall begin"

Class was mediocre as usual. Quirrel assigned us some reading outside of class, and for us to practice stuff like the jelly legs jinx. We had yet to actually do any spells in class, he just lectured us in that annoying stutter of his while we were suppose to take notes. As if that was any way to teach someone how to defend themselves with magic.

I felt bad about it, but I couldn't wait for Harry Potter to kill this guy.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Without ever meaning to Granger and I had become study partners, nothing was ever arranged but she'd find her way to my table. However this time I was running late, having stopped to chat with Morgana, or more precise she talked at me about something or other.

When I got the the library I didn't have to look for the witch, she ran right past me while crying. Which was all wrong, she wasn't suppose to run off crying like that until Halloween, of course not everything matched up we'd already gone past floating feathers in charms and turning matches into needles during transfiguration.

I sighed to myself as I realised that my greatest desire right now was to seek out the young magic user and comfort her. Here I was a man who'd battled killer robots, evil aliens, crazy vampires, insane magic users and dark lords, now I'd been reduced to this.

Hermione hadn't gone far as it turned out. Checking the map led to me the girls bathroom on the same floor. My steps faltered as I almost walked into the girl's bathroom. I didn't really want to go in there.

Thankfully I didn't need to, I could talk to her from out here. However I wasn't sure exactly what to say to her.

"Hermione?" I asked "Are you okay?".

The girl didn't respond, but the crying subsided somewhat.

"Boys can't be in here" she said after a while

She was such a stickler for the rules.

"I'm outside the bathroom" I assured her "You left the door open".

"That's okay then" she soon replied.

I figured that this could take a while.

"You know I think they're jealous of you" I told the girl "because you're the second smartest kid in our year".

"Second?" she asked

Despite the tears and the stall blocking out some of the noise, Hermione still managed to sound indignant.

"Second after me of course" I said.

Hermione actually laughed. Then she laughed again and after she very loudly blew her nose, she spoke to me.

"I just thought that things would be different here" she told me

Having experienced bullying I didn't need any further explanation. I understood exactly how she felt.

"Why does everyone hate me?" she asked.

I sighed.

"No one hates you" I assured the girl "They just find you frustrating to be around".

I doubted that any of my classmates could really hate anyone. Plus I would never hate some child.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

I knew that I had to phrase this carefully.

"People don't like to be told they're wrong" I explained to her "I know that your intentions come from a good place, but they don't see it that they way. You make them feel stupid when you correct them all the time".

If she stopped doing that and let people make mistakes then they might actually ask for help rather than having her trying to force it on them.

"So I'm supposed to pretend that I'm not intelligent?" she asked.

I figured that we would have this talk a few times during our time in this school.

"Of course not. But sometimes you just have to let people make their own mistakes. If you just stopped telling people what to do, life would go a lot smoother for you" I advised "People will see you as bossy as long as you try to force them to do things the way you think they should be done".

She didn't take that lying down, or sitting down in this case, as I heard her exit the stall.

"That's ridiculous. And I'm not bossy, I only want things to be done right" she said.

I sighed again. I really didn't care much for this touchy feely stuff.

"Not everyone agrees with what is right" I told her "You have to let people do things their way, and only offer help if they really need it. There's more to life than homework, and house points, try it out some time, you might like it".

I knew that being obsessed with makeup and boys was beyond idiotic when you could be learning to alter reality at will, but it might make her happier if she got a hobby or something that didn't involve books.

"You're lucky. You don't seem to have problems making friends" Granger said as she washed up in a sink "Everyone likes you".

Well I had a Phoneix, and on that thought I summoned the bird, who sang to help cheer the girl up, which I should have thought of right away.

"I suppose I can try to make small talk and be a bit less bossy" the witch said as Sol began to sing

Hermione then came out of the bathroom. Her eyes were still rimmed with red, but she was smiling. Phoenix song was a wonderful thing.

"I wanted to ask to see him" she admitted "But I wasn't sure if that would be rude or not".

After some encouragement she petted the bird, and Sol plucked one of his own feathers before dropping into Granger's hand.

"They make wonderful quills" I explained "I've never had to replace or sharpen mine".

Sol then flew of to his own thing while the witch and I headed to the library like the massive nerds that we were.


	6. Chapter 6

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 6**

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

Despite all the somewhat cool looking decorations, the sheer mountains of food that were all around me, and the jovial attitude that filled the Great Hall this evening, I was not a happy Ravenclaw right now, and no it wasn't because the library had been closed all afternoon. Sure that didn't help, but I had other reasons to be annoyed.

I was feeling a lack of mirth because Granger was sitting at her house table during the Halloween feast, and she was not off crying somewhere, which was a good thing for her as it meant less chance of her getting splatted by a troll in the near future.

Plus she was glaring at Potter's idiot sidekick in a way that me think that if looks could actually kill that the lad would be nothing more than a smear on the wall by now. I would not want to be his shoes right now, not that I ever did.

I had to wonder what had happened to make her more aggressive, or at least less meek. Could having me as a friend have built her confidence so quickly. Who knew? Females of any age and species were weird, and impossible to understand.

While her being here did mean that my vision would not come to pass, as I'd altered events to prevent that future from coming to pass, it also meant that all my surveillance, and preparation, I'd been practising a few spells so that I didn't have to expose the existence of my other powers, had all been nothing. This annoyed me.

In other news Dumbledore had return to the school along with the Boy-Who-Lived, they'd been dealing with Sirius and his custody claim no doubt. That sort of thing could be very time consuming what with the paperwork and all.

Given how happy Potter looked my guess was that some sort of deal had been struck that involved Potter spending less time with his Muggle relatives. I doubted that the Headmaster would have allowed Potter to leave Privet Drive forever, but I didn't Dumbledore wanted Potter to needlessly suffer.

Now that I'd had to chance to really sense him I found that the Headmaster felt much like a Jedi Master in the Force, at least in terms of the energy that surrounded him, he couldn't access the Force, but it was still a part of him, as it was a part of everyone else. I was able to feel the connections and flow of the Force.

In my view Dumbledore was too good, the lightside could corrupt just as the darkside did, making you so passive that you couldn't bring about any real change as a light lord worked for order, just as a dark lord brought about chaos.

Which wasn't to say that people like Dumbledore weren't dangerous, given enough motivation they could kick some serious ass, but when they faced evil they were too willing to forgive, to extend second chances, when they should be more focused on looking after the people they'd sworn to protect.

In its own way the light was just as blinding as the dark. Which is why I stayed on the more grey side of things. It let you see things more clearly, and while I mostly did good I wasn't above killing people to further my goals, but only of the goal was worth while.

On the outside Dumbledore seemed to be a kindly grandfatherly figure in colourful robes, glasses, and of course he had the huge beard. However he wasn't the only person I had my eye on this evening.

The Potions Master had arrived, as I'd had foreseen it was Horace Slughorn, his return to teaching had been announced at the start of the feast. I didn't think that Slughorn would pay too much attention to the younger students, but in later years it might benefit me to become part of his Slug Club.

For now I was going to try to enjoy the food, a lot of which was proving to be too sweet for my tastes, and wait for Quirralmort to make his appearance. With no Snape around to get bitten by the dog the course of events that led to Potter going after the stone might not happen, but I had a feeling that Dumbledore would nudge things along if needs be, or maybe I would. That could be fun.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

Ron groaned as he looked over at where Hermione was glaring at him. She'd been doing that for a while now, and the boy found it unsettling. He'd made fun of the young Muggleborn after a class which took place shortly before this feast, and now he was regretting it.

"I said that I was sorry, okay?" the read head was now saying "I was having trouble with the spell, and you were trying to help. I get that now".

The scowl on her face did not vanish, and Hermione's glare just intensified. It was scary enough to put the red head off his food.

Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose, he was so sick of this, everything had been going so well for him recently, his godfather, whom he hadn't even known about, had gotten out of prison, and while the man needed some time to recover, the proving of his innocence after the arrest of the real murderer, meant that Harry might actually have a chance of having a real family, or at the very least less time with his muggle relatives.

"Can't you two just give it a break until after the feast?" the young hero requested.

Hermione was about to say something when the doors slammed open and Professor Quirrel rushed in. Stumbling to a stop, he took a note of all the eyes staring at him before he began yelling

"TROLL! Troll... in the dungeon!" he screamed

He then took a breath

"Just thought that you should know" he then said in a calmer voice.

Once he was done informing everyone of this important news he collapsed to the floor, having fainted. For some odd reason though, the way he did it caused Hermione to frown as she tried to feel out why she had a feeling that something was wrong.

At the same time though, the Great Hall exploded into sound as everyone was talking to each other with some panicking at the thought of a troll being in the school. They were after all very dangerous creatures.

The teachers tried to restore the Great Hall into some semblance of order, but totally failed until Dumbledore raised his wand and created a sound like a cannon firing. Everyone in the Great Hall stilled at that as they looked toward him and he looked over his glasses.

"Now then, there is nothing to be concerned about" he assured the children "The teachers will search the school and the Prefects shall take the students back to their Common Rooms until such time as everything is safe."

No one bothered to point out that this put the Slytherins in harms way as their dorm rooms were down in the dungeons. Then again common sense and clear thinking had never really been wizard traits.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

The Ravenclaw common room was located in one of the castle's towers, it was a wide and circular space, almost like an oversized bird cage, only without the bars, or at least that was the impression that I got.

Aside from the spiral stairs this tower had graceful arched windows, and the walls are hung with blue and bronze silks, the colours of the house. Ravenclaw was meant to be connected to the classic element of air, hence blue serving as the main colour for the house and the bird as the house symbol.

The domed ceiling was painted with stars, which actually glowed in the dark, but it was the night's sky, which could be seen from the Great Hall at night. Still it was an attractive feature of the tower.

Tables, chairs, and heck a lot bookcases could be found in the main room of the tower, as well a white-marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw which sat next to the door that leads to the dormitories above.

Unlike the other common rooms in the school there was no password, instead a riddle given by a bronze eagle-shaped knocker must be answered to enter. This could prove troublesome as anyone with enough intellect could intrude into the dormitory, but no one from other houses ever seemed to try.

Today something was different, and despite the wisdom I'd acquired over the many decades of my life, the sheer amount of knowledge I'd amassed, and my superior senses, both supernatural and mundane, it actually took me a few moments to figure what had changed.

There were more posters around than normal, and banners which promised and requested success for a team belonging to Ravenclaw. Plus many of the students were frantically discussing brooms, and balls of different kinds, which to me seemed oddly phallic until I finally realised that it was Quidditch season.

I really didn't get what all the fuss was about.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Despite the cold weather the students were out in force for the upcoming Quidditch match, the first of the year. The sheer amount of hype that had been generated by this one event could have only been the result of overexcited children.

The stands were raised high into the chilly late morning air, but that didn't stop any of the students from showing their enthusiasm for the first game of the season, and the debut of The-Boy-Who-Lived

Harry Potter was in the locker room, checking his broom as the rest of the team finished changing into their odd mixture of robes and sporting gear.

After tying on his shin guards and seeing that everyone was fully dressed and equipped, Oliver Wood rose to his feet and cleared his throat. Harry and rest of the team present, the Weasley twins, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet, turned to face him.

"Alright, men…"

"And women" Angelina quickly added.

"Yes, right, and women" Oliver quickly agreed, before trying to get back on track "This is it!".

"The big one." Fred suddenly added.

"The one we've all been waiting for." George followed up saying.

"We know it by heart, you know. He says it every game" Fred said to Harry.

"Every game?" Harry asked, not liking the sound of this,.

Oliver admonished both twins for their joking, before once again trying to get on with his speech.

"Anyway, this is the best team we've had in years. We're going to win, I just know it"

His expression went from cheerful to very, very sinister. Harry could almost hear the "Or Else" that it seemed to say. He coughed and looked away, and found the rest of the team similarly balking under the gaze. Oliver Wood was captain for a reason.

Oliver was of course pleased that his message got across.

"Right, now let's get out there and give Gryffindor a good show now!" he shouted.

The team cheered, and moved out onto the waiting pitch.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Wizarding World. **

According to a few of the older students, who often offered advice to us first years like they some sort of wise mentors, the Snakes verses the Loins was the most entertaining match of the year.

Mostly because the two houses hated each other and some times didn't mind expressing this mutual loathing with violence on the pitch. Of course everyone was looking forward to seeing what Potter could do.

There are even bets going. I'd put money on Potter getting the snitch and winning the match. Given the points that the golden ball was worth and Potter's skill the odds were good so get much when I won, it wasn't a matter of if, I wouldn't make much money.

Funnily enough there were also other bets on Harry Potter. Like who will snag the boy's heart. I.E be his first girlfriend. I put down Cho Chang of course which did get me good odds as the two of them didn't interact at this point, but I had a feeling that those two would hook up, even if it was doomed to failure.

I was already starting to enjoy this game, there was something thrilling about watching people speeding around in the air narrowly avoiding gruesome deaths as magical cannonballs flew around trying the knock the players off their brooms.

The chasers were insanely fast, blurs of motion as they tried to score while never holding on to the ball for long as they kept passing it between them in order to confuse any opposing players who were trying to prevent them from scoring.

Watching this sport on a TV screen or even at the cinema just wasn't the same thing as seeing it happen in real life. There was a sense of danger and excitement when it was live that you just didn't get when you knew that it was going to end a family friendly way. Reality could be much more gruesome.

Part of me wanted to see someone get hurt and I think everyone around me did as well. They, well we, were a bloodthirsty lot if they/we wanted to see schoolchildren get horribly maimed or killed during a sporting event.

Sure very few people had actually died, but many folks did get hurt so you'd think that the Ministry would ban the sport on the grounds of public safety, sure a lot of fans would be upset, but they'd also be alive.

Then again the wizards of this world could bounce when the hit the ground, and seemed to be more durable than normal humans so perhaps I was worrying to much, and maybe it wasn't as bloodthirsty as it might seem. I knew from the books and movies that Harry would fall of his broom a few times and never do more than break his arm.

If the sequence of events for next year stayed on track we'd get our wish as Potter should break something due to the rogue bludger that Dobby the House Elf messes with. Although I did have to wonder if Lockhart would screw up the spell again, if he didn't Potter wouldn't go to the hospital wing.

I'd already set lose plenty of butterflies, not literally although there might be a spell for that, so who knew how things could work out. After all I had removed Snape from the school so there'd be no counter curse when Qurrilmort tried to kill him.

Broom flying children whisked pass my head and I flinched for a second before standing up to get a better view. I wanted to keep an eye of Potter in case he got injured before he won the match. The young hero had to get the snitch or I was going to lose some money.

Thankfully for Potter I was hanging back, and I was ready to call upon the Force so that I could slow his fall if needs be. As long as no saw me waving my arms about or using a wand then my involvement should undetected. However since that wasn't happening right now I was just going to enjoy the show.

Besides Dumbledore was here so I doubted that Qurrilmort would try anything, and if he did I had plan of action ready.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

As expected Harry Potter caught the snitch and won the match for his team, which had placed the lions well in the lead since it was points that mattered and they'd been scoring well before Potter got the little golden ball.

While Gryffindor might be ruling the school when it came to sports they were not the best at everything, sure Granger was knocking any other first year student form the top of the leader board in any class (I'd held myself back a bit to avoid more attention) but there other contests between the houses.

None were official of course, the staff did nothing to do encourage rivalry between the houses, in theory. The reality was that the houses were in competition, the house cup proved that, even if winning the house cup was totally meaningless.

All that winning the House cup resulted in was the banners at the end of the year feast all becoming the banners of the winning house, and your head of house got to keep the House Cup in their office until the end of the next year.

Which meant there actually wasn't any concrete benefit to the students for winning the cup once they realised that they got nothing out of. And if you weren't in Potter's house you could slave away all year and still lose because of some last moment house points getting handed for things that would have gotten any other student expelled.

Nor did I care much for my status among the student body, which meant that gaining or losing House Points was even more meaningless for me. Once you've dealt with the likes of the IOA, the royal family of Camelot, the Jedi Order and so on, a bunch of baby mages were unimportant.

Today the pecking order within this school was being decided by another game, Wizard's Chess, the enchanted variant of the classic board game in which the pieces move of their own accord when commanded by the player. When a piece is taken, it is removed by the attacking piece, often in a barbaric manner where the losing piece is smashed violently by the winning piece.

The only reason that I was even in the Great Hall right now was that I'd fancied a break from studying and while I could have gone for a nice walk before tucking into a large Sunday dinner, it was currently pouring down with rain.

Which to be fair was hardly an uncommon occurrence in this part of the world. I should have brought an umbrella, or have learned to conjure one, sure I'd likely find one in the Room of Requirement, which I should explore more in the future, or I could have accessed the Cosmic Warehouse and replicated one, but that amount of effort just didn't seem worth it right now.

I noted that Morgana, who'd had become the defacto leader of the first year girls in the lion house was leading a cheer section for Potter's sidekick as he defeated other first years in rival houses who dared to challenge him.

"You should go play" Serana encouraged me.

While I had no enemies within the school, I had no real friends either, at least not close ones. Sure I hung out with Granger, and even she was here routing for her house, but I spent most of time alone.

I had a hard time relating to my peers, which wasn't considering that they weren't really peers. I was spell casting, near-ascended humans, who could call upon the Force. They were kids, we had nothing in common.

Morgana on the other hand was busy playing the role of popular girl, and Serana spent her time actually having fun as far as I could tell.

From what little she had told me the Puff girls spent a lot of time doing girly stuff, which involved boy bands (yes the Wizarding Worlds also suffered those abominations) talking about clothes, and other things that made me grateful that I possessed external reproductive organs.

Serana might act as if she found it all to be very silly, but my thinking was that she enjoyed every second of it. For some people getting a second chance at the whole childhood thing seemed to be a good opportunity.

I was spending my time learning everything I could about this world and magic, but that wouldn't always been the case. I should really go Horcrux Hunting at some point, and prevent the coming war, but I had years ahead of me in this world, so I wasn't really motivated to go do it now.

"He wouldn't be a challenge" I said.

The boy was decent enough considering his age, unlike the other players he knew how to plan more than one move ahead, and he acted out that plan when possible, rather than reacting to the moves of the other player. He even sacrificed pieces for larger gains, such as letting an enemy queen take a pawn so he could take that queen.

Actually wizard chess didn't have queens, instead they had generals. I didn't know why, and I wasn't motivated enough to find out.

"I get too much attention as it is" I reminded Serana "Might be better if I play and let him win".

No sense being seen as good at everything.

"You should do it for Ravenclaw house" Serana argued.

Since she was in Hufflepuff I didn't know why she cared.

"Fine" I said, giving in "It may prove to be an amusing diversion".

Members of my house, some of which were older students who'd come to watch the show, cheered me on as I faced Potter's sidekick. I intended to let the game drag on for a bit before either winning or throwing the match.

I could win no matter how well he played because I could read his mind. I didn't need magic for that, and while normally I wouldn't as telepathy wasn't exactly easy, the sedate pace of the game and the weak will of Ron should make it simple.

Right away I took control of the centre of the board, this was important as it paid to be able to limit your enemy's movements, and once you have some of your powerful pieces in place you could destroy any defence the other player could come with.

Ronald was better than his peers at this one thing so he actually put a decent defence, but he lost control of the match very early on, he reacted to moves, trying to keep his king from getting checked rather than try to force to me protect my side of the board.

_"Oh go on let him win"_

In the whole of this universe only one person could speak directly into my mind, and that was Morgana. She was standing behind the ginger haired prat, offering support like the rest of her house.

_"Why?"_ I sent back.

Those of with the Magical Sensitivity Gene could speak to each other using only our minds. This wasn't telepathy, we couldn't read each others thoughts, it was much like having a private conversation without needing our mouths and ears.

Oddly none of the magic users here could hear us when we talked like this, at least as far as we knew, yet they were born magic users. There had to be a reason, some different in their biology? Did the gene function differently?

In Morgana's native realm even the dragons could speak into my mind, but in this realm not even Sol, who was bonded to me, could do it. Although it was possible that the Phoenix wasn't a sophont, he was intelligent for sure, but being a sophont required more than mere intelligence.

_"This is the only thing he's good at. If you beat him he'll lose what makes him special"._

A valid point, however I loathed Potter's sidekick, he was well aware of his desire to outdo his older brothers, yet he does next to nothing in order to satisfy this desire. He doesn't even put any effort to learning spells, sure magic was normal for him, but how he can not want to learn how to make reality his bitch?

_"Don't care"_

I scanned the surface thoughts of those around me, they were all fixated on the game. Mostly the people here were routing for one person or the other. Ron's house were all behind him, lions have their pride after all.

Yet Granger was routing for me, well actually she was routing against Ron, wanting to him defeated. She really didn't like the part. If it would make her happy I'd destroy the red headed annoying one.

_"Fine, you asked for this"_

This was when Morgana began singing directly into my mind, and given the range as well as her magical power I couldn't block her out with somehow distracting her. Which I couldn't do because aside from the fact that she was still my wife, it would look very strange if I lashed out at another student right now.

_"OKAY YOU WIN! JUST STOP!"_

On purpose I left a gap in my defences, and Ron, who was an opportunistic little parasite, took the opening and very soon got me into checkmate. The look on his smug face as he praised my skill at chess and offered a rematch one day made me want to Force Choke the smug git until he turned purple, but I controlled myself and let the twerp leave in a good mood.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Most of November was gone, somehow it had just gone and vanished on me without me even realising, and Christmas was drawing close for the Hogwarts. The only bump in the road was my birthday, which I'd been totally happy to forget about for the last few decades, but Granger had someone discovered the date, and she'd sent my a present.

None of my companions had ever done that. When you become a somewhat immortal being who started new lives after a certain amount of time, things like birthdays become meaningless.

What was it that Creepio said in the Auralnauts version of Return of the Jedi? Something along the lines of: Birthday parties don't make any sense. You were born. Congratulations! You have met the bare minimum requirement for existence! Oh and now you want presents? Would you like some cake with your participation trophies?

A snowstorm that blew up over a week had dumped several feet of snow on the school, turning the Common Rooms and Great Hall into great bastions of warmth and comfort while the corridors were best avoided.

These days it wasn't uncommon to see students, particularly those from Muggle backgrounds, moving between classes in gloves and earmuffs to the amusement of those of us who knew about warming charms.

I was feeling rather pleased with myself because the end of the first term was coming up, and I'd never once been to a history of magic class, and no one had ever noticed. If Binns the ghost had noted my absence then he never bother to report it, or no one had paid attention if he did.

Currently the Great Hall was packed with many people who were once again amusing themselves indoors. Games were being played, students chatted with each other, magazines and comics were enjoyed, that sort of thing.

Alas some always has to ruin a good time, and shocking news it was Draco Malfoy who had to spoil things.

"You know, it'll be nice to go home this break and spend time with my loving mother and father" Draco said with more volume than was required.

Crabbe snickered, while Goyle smirked. Like most primitive humanoids they were easily amused.

"Is there anything better than having a family to go home to after being away for so long?" the Malfoy boy asked of no one.

Of course the few teachers hanging about turned a deaf ear to Draco's taunting, as he wasn't actually insulting anyone, and they more closely watched Potter for a reaction.

This had to be directed at Potter. I didn't think that the inbred bigot was making any remarks at me because he couldn't possible know that I had no parents. Well actually I did, but calling them parents would be a stretch, they were nothing more than part of background story that I didn't care at all about as long as it served my needs.

"I think the only thing worse than having no family to go back to, would be to have a family that didn't want you back." Draco was now saying "But I'm sure no one knows what that's like. Right, Potter?".

Rather than responded Potter looked to the ceiling and then shook his head before returning to his work. Like me he saw Draco as the most annoying little twat in the school, not even worth a threatening gaze.

Malfoy was just a kid, just a spoiled, prissy, bitch, who was going to come to a bad end if he carried on this this. For now Harry Potter, like me, knew that if he responded, he would end up in trouble.

"Well I could think of something worse." Draco went on to say "Going home to a garbage dump is far worse than any of that, right Weasel?".

Ron prepared to rise from his seat only Harry and Hermione both stopped him. By this point I'd had enough so I used one of my many powers. I called it Biokinesis.

A person with this ability heal nearly any injury, such as mending bones, closing wounds, and much more that I'd never even tried. I could even take control of a person's organs, which was how Merlin (the one from the Stargate setting) was able to disable Baal's voice box. I could do that too.

Mostly I used this ability to heal people, and I didn't even do that very often as people found out that I could cure even death to a limited extent I'd never get any time to myself. However I could use to control bodily functions.

Normally I'd never used this power in a fight it took too much focus, even in my adult body, but this was no fight. I took control of Draco Malfoy's bladder and made him wet himself. Which totally humiliated him, and he forced from the hall in shame as every student laughed at him.

Cruel yes, but oh so much fun.


	7. Chapter 7

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 7**

**King's Cross Station. Muggle World.**

"So you're both going to be busy over the holidays" I asked of Longbottom and Granger.

We were currently getting off the train and preparing to enter London, or the platform may already be in the city, I didn't understand how that worked, and I didn't even know how to phrase the information I desired in the form of a question. I'd have to research the hell out of it in later years when I understood the local magic better.

"My parents are taking me out of the country" Hermione let me know.

I had some vague memory of the Granger family going to France, but I didn't care enough to confirm this, and we weren't close for me to go snooping around in her private affairs.

"Gran has plans" Neville said to me.

He'd be visiting his parents who were in long term care at St Mungos after getting tortured into insanity by the Death Eaters. Which I could imagine was actually worse than having dead parents. Having living parents who didn't even recognise you must be sheer agony.

While I didn't know that curse worked I suspected that the damage was done to the mind directly via dark magic, without harming the body too much, as such Serana might be able to make a potion that could undo the damage, at worse a potion or restoration spell would do nothing at all.

The hard part would getting to Frank and Alice Longbottom, they were in hospital and while 12 year old me could sneak around St Mungos with ease as people don't really notice children. I didn't want their recovery connected with me.

Which meant adult me had to go, or maybe adult me could convince Neville to feed his parents a potion if he though it would make them well. I'd have Serana brew me her best potions for curing aliments of the mind, and then decide.

I planned to visit Serana at her Muggle home during the holidays, just to ensure that everything was okay. She'd told me that her new life was fine, but I wanted to check for myself that she was enjoying all aspects of this Jump.

Morgana I would see for certain at the Pendragon Christmas party. Since my family was neutral when it came to matters of Blood Purity I'd likely see Dumbledore and Malfoy supporters at the party, which would be strange.

"If you fancy visiting my place then send me an owl" I told the two students "Or I can visit you. Getting around is no trouble for me".

Sol could flame to any place I wanted to go, as long as I could give him some sort of address or the name of a person. I didn't know why Dumbledore didn't use Fawkes for ease of transport all of time. Perhaps they had a different relationship than the one I had with Sol.

"I don't have an owl" Granger told me.

Well that could easily be sorted. I'd just buy her one when I was next in Diagon Alley. There were a few things that I needed to go pick from the alley, and not all of the items would be presents.

"Not a problem" I said "Sol can find you and you can send a letter back with him".

Before more could be spoken about I found my face getting mashed into a familiar pair of breasts. Adele had blindsided me, and while I'd grown a little since September it wasn't enough for me to avoid her attempts to suffocate me.

Adele babbled at me in French that was so rapid I didn't catch a word of it as such there was no translation. All I did hear was Longbottom and Granger saying goodbye, as well as some sniggering from other people.

Morgana would pay for creating my Au Pair to be like this, as she would pay for the chess match she drove me into losing. My revenge, when it came, would be oh so sweet.

"Tak mon arm we weehl apparte" Adele instructed.

Apparition was a form of wizarding transportation. It was a method of travelling by having the user focus on a desired location in their mind. After the user is properly focused they then disappear from the current location and instantly reappear at the desired location. In short, Apparition was a form of teleportation. It is by far the fastest way to get to a desired destination, but is tricky to pull off correctly and disastrous if botched.

"I can have Sol take me home" I said

Adele wouldn't hear of that, claiming that experiencing Apparition would help to prepare me to take the exam once I reached 17, which was off far at this point, but perhaps there was some merit to having the experience.

While Apparition was a popular method of travel in the wizarding world, I figured that there were plenty of witches and wizards out there who preferred brooms, Floo Powder or portkeys. I could recall that Albus Dumbledore once noted that most people vomit the first time they successfully Apparate.

I did this because it was not at all like transporter technology, I felt more as if I'd been squeezed through a tube of toothpaste, and I threw up over some nice rose bushes, none of which were in bloom right now, which was good because I didn't think they'd have looked very pretty.

(Line Break)

**Little Whinging. Muggle Britain.**

While this little town did not exist on any other version of Earth I'd been to, that hardly mattered as this place had use to me. It was the location of the Dursley house, Number 4 Privet Drive, the residence of Vernon Dursley and his family.

As I'd ordered Cameron had driven my bike south and upon arriving here in Surrey she'd found Little Whinging. Then with Cortana's aid she'd gone on to find a house which could serve as a base of operations.

It wasn't much of a house compared to what I was used to, but it would serve our needs fine, and could be upgraded, it was even possible to expand the new base by building underground using Tok'ra tunnelling crystals, of which we had a small supply.

While I would not be involved much in expanding the base, I'd leave that up to Cameron and others, I would make use of it. In the future I would need a place to perform experiments within, and an underground lab would good for that.

Right now I had other plans in motion. I'd woken up Miranda and Tali, the two companions I'd been with the longest, as I had a task for them, however before we got to that I wanted them to have some background information.

"Cameron what have you found out so far" I requested to know.

She quickly told us that Grunnings was a drill-making company in Surrey, England. Vernon Dursley, who is Harry Potter's uncle, and the director of the company, he answers only to the owners of the company and has worked there since 1968.

We were also told that The Grunnings office was across the street from a bakery, which Dursley often visited. Cameron also knew the Vernon Dursley's office was on the ninth floor of the Grunnings's office building, the actual manufacturing of the drills was performed at a separate site.

Vernon Dursley did not seem to be particularly fond of his co-workers, having a tendency to complain about them , Cameron knew this as she'd gotten a job in the office canteen, and apparently Vernon complained about people to her, and about her to other people.

Cortana had gotten into the electronic records, and while computers weren't as common as they would soon become, Grunnings had extensive electronic records, so she should be able to fiddle with them to make it look as if Vernon Dursley had been taking money from the company.

"I have taken note of some oddities" Cameron told us "Vernon Dursley owns Number 4 Privet Drive, having paid of his mortgage years ago, yet while he can afford a larger residence he has remained in the same dwelling since since he began working at the firm. He sends his son to an expensive school as well, and could easily gain a mortgage on a new property and pay for it".

This didn't surprise me.

"Most likely it has something to do with the wards that are suppose to keep Harry Potter safe" I said to the group "They might be on the property itself meaning that they can't move house as long as Potter is there".

Which I was sure annoyed Potter's Muggle relatives, not this was an excuse for the abuse they'd piled on the boy over the years. Nothing excused that sort of behaviour.

"Why are you telling us this?" Miranda asked.

I had my reasons, and I shared soon them.

"For the next Jump I want everyone to help me run a large business empire on MCU Earth" I explained "We've set up governments and played politics before, I want to try something different. So I want you and Tali to take control of this small company as a training exercise of sorts".

Well there was a bit more to it than that.

"I also want to ruin Vernon Dursely's life" I then added "I want to fame him for the embezzlement of company profits, to acquire his house so I can have it torn down, and I want him to go to prison for the rest of his life".

None of them understood my motivations for this, so I had to explain why I wanted to destroy some middle class man. Once I did they were on board with the idea, none of us would have feel anything other than disgust towards a child abuser.

"Terminating him would be quicker and easier" stated Cameron.

Well yes, but I had my reasons for not simply ending him.

"I don't know how the wards protecting Harry Potter work" I said "They might prevent us from attacking any member of the Dursley family, but they might not prevent Vernon from being arrested for a white collar crime".

Nor did I know what would happen if someone tried to attack anyone at Number 4 Privet Drive, and I didn't want to test it.

"I want him in prison before the end of the school year" I stated.

Without Vernon around I was sure that Potter would have a much easier home life as his aunt was a shrew of a woman, and Dudley just copied his father's example. Sure Potter might never return, it depended on how things worked out with his godfather, but even if he didn't I would still destroy that family for what they had done.

Plus it would actually be more cruel to take from him everything he'd worked for, his job, his family, and his home, these things he took pride in, so I would take them away, and then forget that he ever existed.

"Anyway running the company will be good practice for the next Jump" I was now saying "Sure Grunnings is a small company, but running it will help, and since we'll be here for years you can expand the business and bring my other companions into the company if you wish".

That wasn't all.

"I want a network of cloaked satellites in orbit over this country as soon as possible" I instructed "You should be able to beam them up into orbit once you get the Asgard transporters up and running".

Since I wouldn't be leaving this country anytime soon I didn't need the entire planet covered by a network of satellites. One day I would, and when they were up there we'd able to beam around the whole world if we so wished.

"While I'm off learning more magic, you ladies can explore this version of Earth" I suggested "Go on nice holidays, see the sights, that sort of thing, as long as you don't draw attention to yourselves".

The last thing I wanted was for any sort of authority to take notice of me or my companions.

"I plan to check out some of the other magical cultures once school is over" I informed the others.

Miranda Lawson and Tali'Zorah exchanged looks before Tali spoke.

"If it gets boring then we can go back into stasis" she said to me "It isn't as if we even feel time passing when in stasis".

This was true.

"Okay I can run a company's offices, deal with marking and sales, while Tali takes care of the manufacturing side of things" Miss Lawson said to me, before addressing the combat engineer "You can advance the technology of this world if you're careful, at least when it comes to drilling".

Indeed she could.

"By the time this Jump ends computers and the Internet will be in common use" I told the ladies "Much more than they are now, so we can leave behind information on environmental sciences and medicines that will help the non-magical people. We'll send the info to the right parties at the right time, and let them figure it out for themselves".

I didn't want to interfere in the Muggle world too much, not when I had so much to learn about magic.

"Now I have to get back to my wizard life before my Au Pair realises that I'm not curled up in bed like I should be" I let the group know "So anything you need from the Cosmic Warehouse you should get now. I won't see any of you again until Easter most likely and at that point we can see about waking anyone else up if you need them".

While I could check up on them easily enough, they couldn't contact me from the Muggle world, not unless any owl could be used to send post. They wouldn't be able to see the Wizard World since none of them had magic.

Well Cameron might be able to as she wasn't human, but given the machines didn't do well in and around Hogwarts I'd rather not risk any damage to her. Sure she would respawn, but since she wasn't a proper companion I didn't know how long that would take. No sense risking her without good cause.

She'd gotten out of Hogsmede fine, but she'd been leaving it, not entering it, and I didn't know enough about wards to know if they only affected non-magical humans. Tali wasn't human so they might not affect her. Perhaps I'd have time to test wards in the future.

"Before we get to that, can I see you as a little boy?" Miranda requested "You must look adorable".

I didn't want to.

"You'd never take me seriously again if see me as a 12 year old boy" I said.

"We will" Tali promised "It's not as if you were never a child".

I sighed and then transformed, the result of this involved my face getting mashed up against even more boobs. It was not as funny as it might seem.

(Line Break)

**Serana's House. Muggle Britain.**

The next time I left the house it actually was with the permission of my caregiver, and Sol, who'd delivered a letter to this address before, took me directly to the home of Serana and her new family, who seemed to be a typical middle class British family, with a respectable home, and no unwanted relatives under the stairs.

I'd sent an owl ahead requesting to met Serana at her home, and she'd sent back a time. As it turned out her parents were at work today, so if we were going to make a potion or potions to fix up Frank and Alice Longbottom then now was a good time.

Like myself Serana had been smart enough to realise that there ways around the law that prevented underage magic outside of school and emergency situations, only in her case she'd stuck to making potions.

This world wasn't as seeped in magic as Nirn, but that hadn't stopped Serana from trying to discover what the magical properties of the local plants were, if any. Without access to the Cosmic Warehouse she couldn't get access to alchemy stuff that we had stored away, until now, but she'd set up her own operation in what looked be a playhouse in the back garden.

"Since we don't know exactly what is wrong with Neville's parents I think that we'll need to fed them a wide range of restorative potions" Serana said to me as she laid out the equipment we would need "Then if that doesn't work we'll have to try Restoration magic".

Given the size of the playhouse, and the fact that were suppose to keep our adult lives separate from our adult ones, we remained children while doing this.

Thankfully for us Slughorn was actually a half way decent potions teacher, sure he favoured some students over other, but he mostly treated the first years all the same, and he was never mean to anyone even if he didn't pay some students much attention.

Of course it help that Snape had set the bar so low. Compared to him Slughorn was a saint towards those of us not in the snake house.

"Well start with a couple of Restore Endurance Potions, they've been sitting around in a hospital then they'll be in bad shape " Serana was now saying "That means we'll need. Cinnabar Polypore, Yellow Cap, Gnarl Bark, and Tiger Lily Nectar".

While restoring the Longbottoms was a worthy goal, and while that gold really meant nothing to me as I had ways of making more, I couldn't help remembering how much I'd spent on all this stuff.

Sure Forestwind had been able to acquire some alchemy ingredients for free by harvesting them in the wild, many more I'd paid for by paying the high prices that alchemist charged. How anyone other than successful adventures ever brought potions was a mystery to me.

"Then we'll need two bottles of the Restore Intelligence potion" Serana told me "So fetch me Alkanet Flower, Blind Watcher's Eye, Clouded Funnel Cap, Lady's Smock Leaves, Watcher's Eye and a couple of Wisp Cores, if we have those".

The effectiveness of a potion depended on many things, the quality and quantity of the ingredients, the skill of the potion makes, and the the equipment, Serana was skilled and the Cosmic Warehouse would provide us with the best, which I'd been able to buy.

Really it was just a matter of writing all of what she wanted down, and then finding the container which was labelled and each contained as much of a type of ingredient as we'd been able to get our hands on.

"For the Restore Personality potions we are going to need Columbine Root Pulp, Lavender Sprig, Swamp Tentacle, and...

I knew what else.

"Primrose Leaves" I said.

Clearly she'd been testing my knowledge of Elder Scrolls alchemy. I might not have her skill for the art of potion making, but I knew my stuff.

"Most important will be the Restore Willpower Potions" Serana told me "For that I'll need Minotaur Horn, Mute Screaming Maw, Primrose Leaves, and Tinder Polypore Cap".

With that we used a door to access to the Cosmic Warehouse so that we grab what we needed. We could have done the work in the warehouse, but we didn't want Serana's Muggle parents to find the door if they got back from work early.

The alchemy we could pass of as homework, but a doorway to a place outside of the universe, that would be harder to explain.

(Line Break)

**St Mugos. Wizarding World.**

To enter the premises, one simply had to step through the window of what appears to be a red-bricked, condemned department store called Purge and Dowse, Ltd. The window acted as a magical gateway to the main building, much like the barrier at King's Cross Station which led to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

The hospital ended up located where it is because no one could find a better place to house it. Everywhere in Diagon Alley was too small, space expanding charms must have their limits, so people came up with ideas to build it underground like the Ministry of Magic, but it was decided that underground was too unhealthy. Eventually, a normal Muggle building was purchased so that patients could come and go while fitting in with the crowds.

The interior, on the other hand, looked exactly as a hospital should. I discovered this for myself after Sol dropped me off into the men's toilets on the first floor, a location I'd scouted out earlier since Sol could take me places either of us had been before. I didn't know how this worked, I could only theorise that Sol was able to picture where I wanted to go in my mind despite my mental defences.

Thankfully no one inside them due to the late hour, and this was good as travelling via Phoenix fire was by no means a subtle thing.

Although the hospital was meant for the magical community, as with all other wizarding institutes, Muggles are admitted when they fall prey to magical attacks, at least according to the research I'd done. I assumed that the non-magical humans had their memories wiped of their time in the hospital.

Also according to the reading up I'd done there were strict guidelines concerning the gifts that are allowed into the hospital, for the safety of the patients. This did not concern me however as I was currently invisible while in my adult form so no would search me.

Actually I wasn't invisible really, I was using an enchanted item which had a camouflaging effect, much like that the Yautja used, only mine was magical in nature, at close range, in daylight it would be unless, but at night while sneaking around I was more or less invisible.

My destination was The Janus Thickey Ward which was a ward located on the fourth floor here at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The ward was named for Janus Thickey, a wizard who faked his own death citing a Lethifold attack.

The door was locked, to prevent the patients from wandering about I assumed, but the door to the ward was opened easily enough by the Skeleton Key, a powerful magical item that unlocked most doors with ease. It wouldn't help with complex electronic locks and the like, but wizards didn't use those.

This ward housed residents whose minds had been permanently affected by spells. Which meant it was very important that I not wake anyone up, if they did awaken my masked face and dark robes would frighten them. These people had been through enough already.

There was a night light however I had something for that, The Deluminator, also known as the Put-Outer, was a device used by Albus Dumbledore (the first known owner and designer of the one Deluminator known to exist until I arrived) to remove light sources from the Deluminator's immediate surroundings, as well as bestow them.

It looks like a standard silver cigarette lighter, and functioned much the same. I used it to put out the light, and this was no hindrance for me as one of the enchanted items that I wore granted me a form of night vision.

I found Mr and Mrs Longbottom in a pair of beds that were next to each other. Using my near-ascended abilities I was able to keep each of them asleep while force feeding them potions. Which was easier than I'd expected as their minds were so far gone they didn't resist me at all. Normally a person would be able to resist this sort of control.

Since they were asleep I didn't know if the potions were effective, but at worst nothing should happen at all. There was a sight chance that one of them would have a bad reaction to something in the potions so I waited a while before leaving.

Once I was sure that they weren't going to have fits or another negative reaction I made my out of the room, and restored the nightlight before re-locking the door behind me. I was sure that if they recovered that Neville would let me know, directly or indirectly, but if nothing happened then no one was any worse off than they were before.

(Line Break)

**Malfoy Manor. Wizarding World. **

"Stand up straight, Damien" Adele chided as she knocked on the door.

I really didn't want to be here, but I'd not been given a choice in the matter, as my Au Pair had insisted that we had to go. At least I'd gotten to pick out my clothing, and I'd managed to pick out some dress robes that didn't make too much like a twat.

"Good to see you. Mr Pendragon" said a cultured voice "And you Miss Delacour".

I looked up to see Lucius Malfoy smiling down at me, or rather smirking at me. I found it hard to believe that a Pureblood elitist would invite a half-blood to his fancy party, so I figured that my wealth and very old name was what had gotten me the invite.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr Malfoy" I replied

The man's handshake was surprising firm and not at all slimy.

"I've heard so much about you" the Death Eater admitted.

That remark made me wonder who'd been talking about me.

"All good things, I hope" I said.

Lucius Malfoy smirked for the second time before briskly turning around

"Of course" he replied "Now do follow me, it's much warmer inside, and here's Draco he'll take you to the children's party. Your cousin should be joining us soon, she must plan on making us wait".

Now this were making more sense. The whole Pendragon family must have been invited. I'd yet to meet Morgana's knew family. I wondered what they were like.

"And who are you anyways?" Draco asked as soon as his father was out of earshot.

He had be acting as if he didn't know. Didn't want me to think that he noticed some half-blood kid.

"I'm Damien Pendragon" I said "Ravenclaw house. We don't have any classes together, or at least I don't think we do".

We might share History of Magic, I'd never gone and found out.

"Come on, I can show you to the ballroom" he stated curtly.

He was leading the way without further words. I ended up following behind Draco as I no intention of walking at his side. It would be horrible for people to think that I actually enjoyed his company.

"Have we met before?" Draco suddenly asked.

I thought back and wondered if we ever actually exchanged words.

"Not really" I said "But you might have heard about Peter Pettigrew. I'm the person who actually caught him".

Draco nodded.

"Yes" he then said "I remember now. You're Morgana's cousin. She's in our year. There are so many annoying girls in our year".

While that was rude, it was also true.

"Yes, I quite agree". I said.

Draco suddenly sneered at me.

"Oh your the half-blood" he said "The one whose good at charms. I don't why my father would have invited you",

That made me laugh.

"Oh, please, your father doesn't care who comes to this ridiculous party as long as they're rich purebloods" I said "and I might be a half-blood, but my family goes back to Camelot, and is far wealthier than yours".

He didn't take that well.

"No one's forcing you to stay." Draco replied curtly

Actually they were.

"I was made to come" I told the boy "Trust me, I didn't get dressed up like this because I enjoy it".

No sane person would.

"And you think I did?" Draco said with a scoff.

When we got to the ballroom I understood why he might not be having a good time. The room was full of happy looking girls, who all wore fancy dresses and were chatting away, and very bored looking boys. This was going to be a nightmare.

What made it slightly less worse was when Morgana entered the room, even as a 12 year old girl she stole the show. She managed to look so elegant and I was reminded of when she'd been a noble lady in the court of Camelot.

I asked myself some questions. Maybe she'd dance with me. Did I even remember how to dance?

Guess I could go find out.

(Line Break)

**Malfoy Manor. Wizarding World. **

Morgana was having the time of her life, and had been ever since she'd come to this world. Her first childhood had for the most part been a lonely and sad time, but now was getting the childhood that she should have had.

In this world she had a mother and father who adored her, and she lived in a world that not only accepted her magic, but actually encouraged it, even celebrated it. Plus she had all the power and wealth she could ever want.

She was golden child in her new family, her parents boasted of her frequently, she was lavished with attention and had the admiration of her peers at school. She ruled the girls of her school house with ease.

Dominating a social gathering such as the Malfoy Christmas party was no trouble for Morgana, she'd been able to do such things since soon after arriving in Camelot, and back then she'd really been a young girl, now that she had greater intelligence as well as power she could ensure that she was always the centre of attention.

The moment that she walked into the ballroom that contained the children's party, all eyes were upon her. She was dressed better, she looked better, and she was the most important person in the room. Which as it should be.

Morgana could have easily abused her position, but she chose not to, instead she simply basked in the attention and admiration like a plant under the warming rays of the sun.

Of course she knew it wouldn't last, and this was all the more reason to enjoy it while it lasted.

Before long Morgana spotted the Jumper, who was currently in the guise of Damien Pendragon her distant cousin, the child less spoken about by the older Pendragons, not because of his blood status, that hardly mattered, it was more to do with his parents divorcing and bringing shame upon the family.

Morgana didn't care about those circumstances, she'd created them because they suited both her and the Jumper, he didn't crave attention or the admiration of strangers, or if he did he denied it.

He was looking at her. All the boys were, and Morgana was greatly reminded of when the Jumper had played the role of knight in court of Camelot, and how he'd always looked at her back then.

Figuring that it was time to get this party started, now that she had arrived, Morgana went over to her 'cousin', and decided to find out if he knew how to dance. As long as he didn't step on her toes they should be fine.


	8. Chapter 8

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year - **

**Part 8**

**Hogwarts Express. On Route to Hogwarts. **

Neville Longbottom joined me in the carriage that I had to myself for the trip back, Serana and Morgana had both gone off some time ago in order to find their girlfriends, no doubt with the intent of catching up the gossip they'd missed over two weeks of holidays. Clearly they were far more into their roles than I was into mine. Which was something I'd noted before now, more than once.

"You look happy" I said the Herbology lover.

Indeed he did, there was a spring in his steep, and if I was any judge that was a brand new wand in this hand.

"New wand?" I asked as the young lad took a seat.

He proudly showed it to me.

"13", Cherry, unicorn hair" he told me.

It was a nice looking wand.

"What happened to the old one?" I asked,

I had a feeling that his father would have needed his wand back.

"Oh didn't you read the paper?" the young man enquired.

I had, but not every article, some sections of the paper were too dull to get through to my brain. Lucky for me Neville had cut out the article I now wished to see.

There were no surprises to be read about, according the report the Longbottom's had recovered for no understood reason, speculation was that they may have recovered naturally, but there had been so sign of that, so the reporter, a name I didn't recognise, actually suggested Christmas miracle.

I felt a little bad about not leaving some sign that it was my adult self that had done the good deed, but that was for the best, the longer myself as adult went unnoticed the more I could get done in secret.

"Congratulations" I said to the boy in my year "It must have been a Merry Christmas at the Longbottom house".

His smile let me know it had been

"My Mum did give my Gran a bit of earful about how she treated me" Neville informed me "but then they cried and hugged. Women are strange".

_Amen to that brother. _

We would have spoken more, only a member of the female gender entered the carriage, it was Granger. She had already changed into her school robes, and she was carrying a wrapped up git, to my complete lack of surprise it was book shaped.

"I'll see you later" Longbottom said.

He quickly left the carriage, he might just be eager to spread the good news, or he might be running away his Houses' swot. I wouldn't blame him, she was a bit of a nightmare, I understood that, but I'd seen real horrors, and I knew how to deal with her. I just didn't talk to her much even if we were friends of sorts, we both were happier not conversing much during our study time.

"Damien I got you something" she let me know "And thank you for the owl, was she expensive?".

Well cost was relative to me, I'd just gone for a pretty looking bird, mostly to avoid her getting that Crookshanks creature, which she might still get if she realised that she could leave the owl at home for her parents to care for and still get messages via the bird.

"I just thought that your parents would like to write to while your at school" I told the young witch "I know you can use a school owl, but I don't know if they stick around and wait for people to right a reply. Besides now you can write to me over the summer".

Hermoine passed me the gift, and I opened it with care that no doubt surprised her.

_"Quidditch Through the Ages" _I read out

Not my choice in reading material.

"Well, you are a boy" Granger said.

That would explain my penis.

"I've been getting a lot of reading done myself" the little witch told me "I've been trying to find out about a man called Nicolas Flamel, but he's not in any of my books".

Oh so she was on the right track. Maybe she was working alone, or with Potter and his sidekick.

"Nicolas Flamel the alchemist?" I asked.

The way she sat up straight and stared right at me was a little scary.

"You know about him" she said "Tell me everything!".

Well I wouldn't tell her everything I knew, but I could give her some information.

"He's a French wizard, a well-known alchemist and only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which is a legendary object with incredible powers. He worked with Albus Dumbledore to find the 13 uses of dragon's blood if I remember correctly" I told the witch "He's pretty much immortal due something called the Elixir of Life. He and his wife Perenelle created this Elixir using the Stone"

Flamel was briefly mentioned on Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card, but since I didn't collect those I didn't mention that.

"I've got to go" Granger said.

People seemed to be in a real rush to leave my carriage.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

It was good to be back at the school. I'd really gotten sick of a Xmas in the world of wizards. All those parties had been so dull, and I'd had to go several of them, to make matters worst they'd been full of boring purebloods.

The worst was the Pendragon family dinner on Christmas, Morgana had loved it of course because she was the golden child, and while I didn't mind being ignored, it just reminded of my much I'd loathed most of my own childhood.

Of course since I was in the Ravenclaw House I got books for Xmas, and clearly form people who knew nothing about me as they contained information on subjects I simply didn't care about, like gobstones, whatever the hell they were.

As I'd known I would before long I found that the Room of Requirement was located on Hogwarts' seventh floor, across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Which wasn't hard to find even with the castle's habit of changing internally.

In order to open the way the special room I had to walk past the part of the wall where the door would appear three times, while thinking about what I need. As far as I knew the Room of Requirement should be able to provide a large variety of spaces, such as a library, a study, and even bedrooms.

The Room of Requirement first appeared in a passing comment made by Professor Dumbledore. He mentioned that he had once found a room full of chamber pots, but that he had been unable to find it again since. Having learned how the Room works, it seemed safe to assume that he had been walking back and forth in that hall, in need of a bathroom.

When Harry Potter needed a secret place for Dumbledore's Army to meet, Dobby the house elf told him about this room, or Neville did the movie. Dobby called it the "Come and Go Room" I assumed because it wasn't always around, only appearing when the elf needed it.

Harry potter proposed using it as a meeting place for Dumbledore's Army in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, exaggerating Dumbledore's earlier mention of it as a way of dealing with Hermione's worries about its suitability.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy used this room to repair the Vanishing Cabinet, which I would need to deal with sooner or later, but I didn't need to worry about it right now.

That version of the Room of Requirement seemed to contained a lot of junk, my guess was that it contained all the stuff that had been hidden in the Room of Requirement since the school first opened, as well as a lot of crap the elves had dumped here when they'd needed the storage space.

Initially it appeared that this room could be all things to all people, always having exactly what is needed, however I suspected that the vast warehouse of broken and hidden stuff, contained everything that the Room of Requirement could provide. Which was quite a lot considering the sheer amount of junk I'd seen.

My knowledge of the Room of Requirement let me know that it couldn't provide food, and when I asked it for money it gave me a place that was empty aside from a table, and on that table was a container, about the size of a jewellery box that was full of coins, most of it lose change, muggle and wizard, with only a few gold coins, which I'd taken for myself.

This supported my theory, over a thousand years a lot of students could have dropped coins while within the Room of Requirement, but while losing a bit of change was one thing, losing things of real value was a different matter, the student would be more careful with gold coins than they would with sickles and knuts.

The fact that the Room of Requirement couldn't provide food supported my theory as any food left in the Room of Requirement would quickly rot away, or be cleaned up by the House Elves. Water was much easier since Room could just divert some piping, but that was also limited otherwise Dumbledore would have found a bathroom here rather some old chamber pots, which weren't used these days.

It was clear to me that the Room of Requirement could make use of anything that had been stored here, and that it might have a limited ability to alter or repair stuff that been placed inside it. I would have to experiment some more.

I was now thinking about how the warehouse full of junk that the Room of Requirement could be turned into was destroyed near the end of series by Fiendfyre. It was possible that the magical fire completely destroyed the Room, but I could not be certain as no character attempted after the Fiendfyre.

To me it seemed safe to assume that all the material hidden in the junk warehouse was destroyed, and that the warehouse, as a result, would be much smaller if it were re-opened as there would be no junk left, but the space might be available if someone needed to use it again.

Of course I had no intention of ever trying to test that theory even if I could control Fiendfyre, which I didn't want to find out, as that would destroy all the things of value in the Room of Requirement that I had to find.

Which did turn out to be quiet a bit. Using the map to make sure the cost was clear I'd exited the Room, and requested something else a few times so far. I'd made a library, which I'd taken a few books from, a place to look at porn, which the Room of Requirement could supply and would be on interest in future years I was sure.

I'd also checked to make sure that the Room of Requirement could provide a place for me to study in alone, and also a place to practice Defence Against the Dark Arts, should I decide to start my own Defence Club, which we students might need given the low quality of most Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers in this school.

Once again I exited the room again, and this time I asked the school for the 'room of hidden things', figuring that it would easier to summon things of value to me using the Accio charm, and that I could practice that spell at the same time.

Of course as soon as I entered the hidden things place I could sense it, the Horcrux, it was an unnatural thing, and my superhuman senses did not like it.

_Horcruxes_ were any object in which a sorcerer has preserved a portion of his soul, which anchored a part of the soul to the mortal realm. Which means that the Horcrux prevents the sorcerer's soul from going onwards should the sorcerer's body die; the effective result is that, given appropriate spells, the sorcerer can be brought back to life. This is considered to be among the darkest of all magic.

I could have spent my CP on obtaining a Horcrux, but I was already immortal thanks to some magic I'd gotten in Merlin's world, and there wasn't anything actually stopping me from making a Horcrux with the aid of the Jump Set up. All I had to do was murder someone in cold blood, I doubted that any type of killing spilt the soul or I'd only a tiny, tiny fraction of a soul left by now.

From what I recalled a Horcrux will endure until the container housing it is destroyed. Souls are, by their nature, virtually indestructible; a fragment can be sheared away, by the act of committing murder, and that fragment, if contained in an object, causes the object to partake of its indestructibility.

Ordinary magic and mundane weapons cannot harm a Horcrux, any more than ordinary magic can harm a soul. However I knew that Harry destroyed the Diary Horcrux by stabbing it with a Basilisk fang; Basilisk venom is certainly extraordinary magic, given how uncommon basilisks are.

Of the six Horcruxes destroyed in the book, most are destroyed by Basilisk venom, delivered by fang or a goblin sword that had absorbed some of the venom, and one by Fiendfyre. The one in Harry Potter wasn't actually destroyed strictly speaking, but the bit of soul was still removed from the Earth.

Which didn't discourage me from creating a single Horcrux, but I didn't want to plan that unless I had a way of making myself a new body. I could try cloning myself and possessing the clone, that might work.

That was something I could look into after I left this school. I was already immortal, and while that had limits, I wasn't motivated enough to risk Dumbledore's notice should I start seeking out knowledge of such dark arts.

For now I wanted to destroy a Horcrux, and that was Rowena's heirloom, her magical diadem, which was stolen by her daughter and concealed in a hollow tree in Albania. In the books it was destroyed in a Fiendfyre spell gone wrong, but I had no need for such extreme methods.

When I saw the Horcrux I took out Cailburn, my dragon-forged blade and raised it over my head, intending to bring it crashing down, only I toppled over, my 12 year old body simply wasn't strong enough to wield such a weapon.

So I transformed into my adult body which was still dressed in grey robes that I wore over black clothing, and I now had Vokon's mask covering my face. Also in this form I had on some magical rings and amulets that I didn't have on as a boy.

In this body I had a number of small cybernetic implants, which could be damage by whatever it was about Hogwarts that broke technology, but this wasn't important as I wouldn't be in this body for long.

I raised the sword, and brought it crashing down, the sword destroyed the Horcrux in a blinding flash of light, and I ended up on my ass for the second time in a row. I had to laugh because it was funny.

"One down, like four more to go" I said myself.

I still needed to destroy the diary, the ring, the cup, the locket, and there was Harry Potter himself, the snake wasn't a Horcrux yet so I didn't need to worry about her. Potter was a concern as I wasn't going to kill a child, but when he was older I might be able to soul trap the part of him that was Voldemort, kill Potter, trap the bit of soul, and bring Potter back from the dead.

Such a drastic course of action could wait as there was a way to remove a soul from a body without killing that person, dementors could do it, and there'd been a mage in Skyrim who could so I might be able to figure it out.

For now there wasn't much for me to beside keep an eye on Potter and his friends while getting some studying done.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

By the weekend, Morgana, Serana and I were meeting in the Room of Requirement in our adult forms, as this was no business for children, even if those children were us.

"I did some research, and questioned Moaning Myrtle as well" Morgana told us "From the looks of things, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is located in the bathroom that she haunts, specifically behind a sink that has never worked".

This wasn't news to me, but Serana needed to hear all of this.

"The entrance can only be opened by someone who has the gift of Parseltongue" Morgana was now saying "Which I have".

Now I spoke.

"So we'll sneak down there and you'll open the entrance for me and summon the creature so that the basilisk can be dealt with" I said to Morgana "You won't have to do anything except open the entrance and call for the snake. I have a rooster and can deal with the basilisk of the chicken can't do the job".

I pointed at the covered cage that was sitting on a table, the school had its own population of chickens and a few roosters so getting one hadn't been much work. I'd bewitched the cage so that nothing would wake up the bird that I'd made sleep until I opened it, and that point the poultry would think it was morning and make some noise.

For some reason that didn't work. I had a magical sword, a Phoenix, and the Force, which would allow me to see even with my eyes closed since I would still be aware of the world around me when I had my eyes closed.

"You'll take the rooster down there, do some spell to make it crow, and once the basilisk hears the crowing, it will die" Morgana summarised "Sounds like a good plan".

If Potter could slay the beast as a boy I should be able to as an adult who had far more power than he did.

Before long the three of us set off for Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, using invisibility potions and the map to in order avoid anyone seeing us. Morgana wanted to keep our child lives separate from our adult ones, but if things went wrong we would all need our mature bodies and our full powers.

Once there, Morgana spoke snake speech at one of the sinks.

"_Open_" she said in Parseltongue, which I understood even if I couldn't speak it.

The sink began to move; in fact, it sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, one wide enough for an adult to slide into.

"Okay I'm going to go down first, and you two will follow me. Follow my instructions exactly" I said to the ladies "And if I get petrified, but not killed, you know what to do".

We had a backup plan in place, and there was no need to discuss it further so I grasped the cage containing the rooster tightly, and slid down the pipe. Which was not a pleasant experience as the pipe hadn't been cleaned in a thousand years.

Serana and Morgana followed me down several seconds later. It took a while to get down the pipe and I wondered how the slide connected to the rest of the pipes here in the school. Which was how the monster got around when active, but that was something I could ponder about at a later date.

"We must be deep underneath the school," said Serana.

She came from Skyrim so underground lairs were nothing new to her.

"Probably under the lake," commented Morgana.

This wasn't the time or the place for such a discussion so I didn't get involved.

I had considered delaying this action until after the diary had been brought to the school, however as long as no one found out that we killed the beast then Lucius Malfoy should still have the book smuggled into the school.

Should he chose not to, for some reason, well I'd been to his home so I have Sol take me there whenever I wished. I'd just have to recover the horcrux myself in needs be.

What actually worried me was the locket, as I knew where it was but couldn't speak the information or even write it down which meant that the home of Sirius Black had been put under a certain spell.

I assumed that this was for Potter's protection, and if so it meant that he wouldn't be going back to Privet Drive, at least not for long, maybe not at all should my plans progress as desired.

Therefore to get to the locket I'd either have to be invited to house that served as the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, which was unlikely to happen any time soon, or I would have to tell Dumbledore some of what I knew and hope that he could find as well as destroy the locket.

If needs be I'd have to send him a letter explained all about the Horcruxs, while omitting any knowledge I had of Harry Potter having a bit of soul in him that wasn't suppose to be there. Risky if not done right.

At least I could deal with the other soul containers and ensure that the Headmaster had the right tool for the job of destroying the locket when the time was right. Voldemort needed to be brought back to life before he could be killed, and I could leave that to Dumbledore

"Sol!" I called out.

In a burst of flame the magical bird appeared and came to rest on my shoulder.

"Follow me" I commanded "Remember, if there is any sign of moment, immediately stop in your tracks and shut your eyes".

The tunnel was as quiet as the grave, and the first sound we heard for some time was a loud crunch as Morgana stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Which was not at all pleasant.

"Must be the remains of what the basilisk has been eating," I said "Maybe it sleeps for years at a time, wakes up, eats something, or few things, and goes back to sleep, only remaining awake when ordered to. That would explain how a massive snake monster could go unnoticed for centuries".

Soon we came across the shed skin of Basilisk. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"That is one big snake" Morgana muttered.

Indeed.

"Think about all the potions I could make from a creature this size" I heard Serana say.

"We're here to take down a giant snake and all you can think about is the potion ingredients it can provide?" Morgana asked, sounding incredulous.

"I can't help it if I enjoy making Potions" the vampire replied "It was the only thing my mother and I ever did together, well that and tend her garden".

The three of us continued down the tunnel, which was much larger than in the film I discovered, much larger. After many long minutes, we went around yet another bend and saw a solid wall with a circular metal door. It's snake theme made it clear how we needed to get access.

I had a few unanswered questions at this point, I wondered how the monster got around if it was sealed inside this part of the underground lair, there had to be more than one way in or out, perhaps it involved more pipes.

_"Open"_ Morgana said again in Parseltongue.

The serpents moved as the door was unlocked, once inside we found ourselves at the end of a very long, and dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to a support a ceiling that was lost in darkness, making it impossible to get a true sense the scale of the place.

Hard to miss even the gloom was a statue high as the Chamber itself, which managed to loom over us even while we were standing against the back wall.

"That must be Salazar Slytherin" I said "In the movie the creature slides out of its mouth when summoned".

This meant that we had time for a few last moment preparations before Morgana called for the big snake. Which I'd been hoping for, but hadn't counted on.

"Sol" I said "Bring me the hat"

If Fawkes, Dumbledore's familiar, minded my phoenix, suddenly appearing in the Headmaster's office to steal a certain hat then I saw no sign of it. Not that Fawkes seemed to much of anything.

I knew that Dumbledore was not in the school right now, he often left the grounds, stuff to sort out at the Ministry of Magic I figured, and if the portraits told him that a phoenix came and took the hat I'd have some explaining to do.

Of course I had a reasonable explanation ready to go. I'd just tell the Headmaster that Sol did things for reasons of his own, which he sometimes did, and that the Sorting Hat came to no harm which it wouldn't. I'd return the Hat to my head of house in the morning.

I'd have to deal with the Sorting Hat and make it promise to keep things quiet, which it should do as according to Hogwarts: A History the Sorting Hat was not allowed to give anyone information on students, the reasons why it place any student in the House it chose were private, as were any conversations with the Hat had with the students, at least according to Hogwarts: A History. More people should really read that book.

"What use is the Sorting Hat going to be here" inquired Serana.

Guess she'd not memories all the files I had on this world.

"It's what is inside the Sorting Hat that can help," I explained

I then turned to Morgana.

"Hold onto it" I instructed her "and when the basilisk appears, ask the Hat for help".

Hopefully it would work for adult Morgana as she was still the same person as her child self really. My concern over it not working had to do with her selecting which house to go into rather than having her selected for the house.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

I didn't answer.

"Just summon the snake" I ordered.

As she did I set down the cage with contained the rooster, ready to make it crow.

"Now ask for help" I instructed the Seer.

As hoped the gleaming silver sword, which looked like it was goblin-made, had appeared from inside the Hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs even in this dim light.

"Close your eyes" I ordered.

I could sense the monster with the Force so when I was sure that it was close enough I used the Sonorous Charm on the rooster to make its crow louder when I woke it up. When the crowing finally ended, I sensed no danger

"You two can open your eyes" I said "The basilisk is dead"

While there had been no epic battle, that was for the best. Besides a well set up plan of action with back ups in place was more the Ravenclaw way of doing things.

"Ah good, you were able to summon Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat" I said.

Guess she did belong in that House after all.

"Gryffindor's sword?" Serana asked "You mean this sword once belonged to Godric Gryffindor?".

Guess she really hadn't read all the files, but she did have some knowledge of the setting.

Morgana looked down at the weapon and saw, engraved just below the hilt, the name Godric Gryffindor.

"Oh," she said, next "How did I pull it out the Hat?".

I smiled at her

"You asked for help and it gave it to you" I answered.

I took my goblin-made sword out of my expandable pouch. It was much like the one Morgana currently held, only mine had sapphires rather than rubies in the hilt, the blue of Ravenclaw, rather than the red of Gryffindor.

While the two swords seemed more like show pieces than swords meant for the slaying of anything, I knew that these swords were actually incredibly dangerous.

"Like this weapon, Godric's sword is goblin-made, and the blade is able to take on the properties of whatever can strengthen it" I explained "If it is infused with the venom of the basilisk then it will be able to destroy Horcruxs".

It was tricky work getting venom onto the two blades, and also it took some effort to collect some of the fangs, which were themselves deadly weapons, and might have magical properties once ground down.

"Good, that's been taken care of," I said.

Morgana was admiring the sword she'd pulled out of the hat.

"Can I keep it?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"The sword is meant to appear to anyone from your house who needs it" I told her "We might be able to get around that by putting in the Cosmic Warehouse, but then someone in your house might need it and not have it. My plan is to send to the Headmaster and then tell him about the locket Horcrux at a later date so that he can take care of it".

In fact given his high position within Wizarding culture he should be able to get the cup too. I'd deal with the ring so as to avoid Dumbledore dying, but there was no reason why the Headmaster couldn't deal with the rest if I needed him to.

As long as Potter stayed alive Voldemort could still return, but I might be able to deal with in due time, I knew that it was possible to transfer souls into a soul gem without killing someone as there's a quest in the Elder Scrolls Skyrim game that involves doing just that.

"Place the sword back in the hat" I instructed "and then give me the hat".

Morgana did as she was told, and I soon sent the Hat back to the office, but before telling the creature that I was a student and that it should keep its flap shut. If for some reason it didn't, well I'd have to cross the bridge when I got to it.

"You know if we cleaned up down here" Serana was now saying "This might be a good base of operations for us while we're in the school. Anyone can stumble across the Room of Requirement, but only Morgana can open the door to this place, and we know where the entrance is, and no one goes into that bathroom".

Moaning Murtle would need to be dealt with, but we should be able to help her move on, those ghosts with 'unfinished business', whether in the form of fear, guilt, regrets or overt attachment to the material world refused to move on to the next dimension, but Murtle should leave if she knew her death had been avenged. If she didn't, well its not as if anyone paid her any attention.

"You two can give that a try" I said.

I didn't want to hang around in a girl's bathroom while talking to a ghost. People already thought that I was weird I didn't want to add to that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 9**

**Knockturn Alley. Wizarding World.**

While it was a Saturday afternoon this part of London wasn't very busy, and that was no surprise to Serana as this street had gained a nasty reputation which had reached Serana's ears not long after she'd first visited Diagon Alley.

What didn't help was that the wizards and other people who were hanging around in this street were behaving fairly suspiciously as well. This didn't seem right as most of the stores in this street weren't really dark or dodgy.

However some of the stuff for sale here did fit in with the alley's reputation for darkness, items that worried Serana included, shrunken heads, poisonous candles, bones that had come from humans, and Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent. Which in the view of Serana, sounded like a needlessly cruel way to deal with slugs.

The fact that the alley was shady, in terms of having a lot of shade due to the tall buildings and its narrowness, also added to the impression. Not that the vampire minded this as it was lessening the effects of the sun upon her current form.

As with Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley was not directly accessible from the Muggle world. The Leaky Cauldron pub provided one access (via Diagon Alley), while Apparition and Floo powder were other access options.

Serana, who was here with Gothic, had simply beamed into a quiet spot near the Leaky Cauldron using something called Asgard Beaming Technology. Which was a way of magically teleporting without actually using any magic, at least as far as she understood.

The Wizarding world was so strange than a man in metal mask, who wore robes, and a vampire in leather armour, who kept her hood up, barely even registered to the natives, as for the Muggles in London, well that was what invisibility potions were for.

There many stores in this street than expected, Serana was now noticing, and as she had noted before not all of them seemed dark in any way.

She saw a place called Beard Trimming, which had to be a barber shop. A business that was aimed towards those who to place wagers on various events. Chimney sweeping elves could also be hired in this street.

Some of the businesses here were dark or at least morbid. Cobb & Webb's, a shop that sold items related to Dark Arts, was one such place. Also there was The Coffin House, shop that sold Dark Arts materials related to raising the dead, which Serana would have to drop into as there were materials she needed for a big project.

The vampire also saw a placed called Dystyl Phaelanges, which was a shop that sold bones of many different kind. A Wizards Undertakers & Embalmers, a funeral home. Fledermaus and Tanner Bats & Skins, which made things from bat leather it could be assumed

There was bound to be much more, but for now Gothic had this eye on only one place, a store called Borgin and Burkes.

Already Serana knew that it was an antique shop located at 13B, Knockturn Alley, as she could see its address, and she assumed that it was owned by a Mr Borgin and Mr Burke. She doubted that any women worked here or owned the place as it very much lacked any feminine touch.

On the way here Gothic had told her the shop owners were known to deal with unusual and ancient wizarding artefacts, not all of which could be consider dark. It had a shady reputation mostly due to the fact that it is frequented by those with sinister intents, whom were considered dodgy, and it didn't help that its owners were rather greedy gits.

Upon entering the shop the two people from other realities began to look around. Serana soon saw glass case nearby which held a withered hand that sat on a cushion, she knew better than to touch it.

She also saw a blood-stained pack of cards, some sort of cursed item she figured, and a staring glass eye, which seemed to follow them around the room, actually in a sense it did, the eye turned to track them as they moved.

Serana spotted some evil-looking masks that stared down from the walls, as well as an assortment of human bones that lay upon the counter, and a number rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling, some of which she knew both the names of and the uses for, none of which were pleasant.

One dangerous item that the shop had on display that caught Serana's eye was a Opal Necklace that had been on display in the front window. This necklace had a label, which had said "Do not Touch! Cursed. Has claimed the lives of nineteen Muggle owners to date".

Serana had to wonder what kind of small minded prick would buy something like that.

"This is what we're here for" Gothic told the vampire.

What they'd come for was the other part of pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which were magical objects that could act as a passage between two places. Objects placed in one cabinet will appear in the other regardless of distance.

The cabinets seem to ward off all known defensive spells, as they were successfully used to transport several Death Eaters from Borgin and Burkes into Hogwarts School, this was important as Gothic wanted to use them to move between the Chamber of Secrets and their base in Little Whinging

They could have kept one Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, however that part of Hogwarts was less secure than it might seem since the door to it would appear to anyone who was wandering around a certain tapestry up on the 7th floor.

Gothic had told Serana that Vanishing Cabinets were highly popular during the First Wizarding War; in the event of a Death Eater attack, one could simply disappear to the other cabinet until the danger had passed.

Serana had wondered why the Death Eaters didn't simply follow whomever they were after using the cabinets, but the Jumper didn't know for sure, although he theorised that they could be password protected, or maybe you couldn't use the cabinets if one of them had a door left open.

"I believe that I've found the twin to this cabinet" the Jumper was now saying to Mr Borgin or Mr Burke "I'd like the one I have repaired before buying yours".

Gothic didn't know enough about the local magic to fix the magical objects, and it would be much easier to erase the memories of anyone they did business with rather than to attempt to fix themselves and get it wrong.

Serana watch as Gothic used his powers to lift the cabinet out of the pouch of holding he'd been using to carry it in. He'd been worried about putting it in there due to the odd nature of the Cabinet, but nothing bad had happened.

"Oh yes" said either Borgin or Burke "I can fix this, for a price".

Gold wasn't a concern Serana knew that, but Gothic bartered in any case, and once a sum was agreed upon, as well as time for pick up, they soon left the store. Neither of them wanted to stay for long in this place of business.

(Line Break)

**Cokesworth. Muggle Britain. **

Allnel Forestwind was very happy about getting to explore a whole new world. Most people in her native reality never saw much more than the settlement they grew up in, but she was not like those people.

The Bosmer hadn't been born, as such she hadn't grown up anywhere, she'd been created to serve the Jumper known as Gothic, who'd brought here to this strange city on his motorbike, which had been teleported to a spot of outside of the town, and then driven in.

Allnel didn't mind the fact that she'd been created to serve Gothic, she couldn't imagine doing anything else, and it was comforting to know that her existence wasn't meaningless or random.

She'd been made for one overall purpose, and she was able to fulfil her purpose, so for her the meaning of life was no mystery, she didn't feel any uncertainty, and for as long as the Jump lasted she was pretty much immortal, so she had no need to fear dying.

Oh she knew very well that she could cease to exist at some point in the distant future, but she saw no reason to worry about something that might not happen for centuries, depending on the length of future Jumps.

Forestwind focused on the new sights, sounds and even smells of this human city. It wasn't a pleasant place by the standards of Muggles who lived in this country, however it could worse, and it did provide a better quality of life to the locals when compared to Allnel's home dimension.

The motorbike she was riding on, which was another new experience she was enjoying, mostly due the vibrations, came to a stop in a street that didn't look any different to those around it.

Which made Allnel wonder how Gothic knew where to go. She'd been the guide during the last Jump, but she knew that the Jumper had access to means of gathering information that she couldn't comprehend.

She figured that he'd been making use of his satellites again, which were up so high that they couldn't be seen. Allnel was sure that one day she come to understand her boss's many mysteries.

Speaking of her boss (she didn't see the Jumper as her owner, the elf was no slave, rather she was his servant), he was now getting off the bike and looking at one of the houses.

"This is Spinner's End" Gothic told her "Which is childhood home of one Severus Snape".

The _Spinner_ in the street name made the elf wonder if the people living here were heavily involved in cotton or wool spinning. Gothic mentioned something about the town of Cokesworth suffering due to post-industrial decline, but the elf didn't understand what that term meant.

She did know that the place seemed oddly silent, even for a Sunday afternoon, which was something Gothic had explained about, and it wasn't a nice sort of peaceful quiet, it was more as if these streets, which should be packed with people, had become devoid of life.

Yet there were people around, already some light was spilling out of the houses were there were gaps in the curtains. It seemed as if the people of Cokesworth didn't want to acknowledge the world outside their homes if they could avoid doing so.

"Keep your helmet on" her boss ordered "At least until we're inside".

The non-magical humans of this world weren't aware of the existence of other intelligent races. Some even had the gall to think that they were the only higher forms of life in existence. Which meant that if she was seen that people would freak out, or just think that she was deformed, either would draw attention that they didn't want.

"We must be near the childhood home of the Evans family, where Petunia Dursley and Lily Potter grew up" Gothic was now saying "This housem which belongs to that Snape guy I mentioned, should be invisible to Muggles, but you're not human, and I'm magical".

Forestwind knew that boss had interrogated the dark wizard who owned this home, which had been much easier by Gothic's ability to download memories, not that the elf understood that meant beyond her boss having means to somehow watch people's memories.

"Would you like to do the honours?" the Jumper asked.

The bosmer used the Skeleton Key, a powerful magical artefact to gain entrance into the home of Severus Snape.

Once the door was open the two of them stepped directly into a tiny sitting room, which felt smaller than it actually was, and there was a sense of darkness here, well more of a gloominess really.

The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in old black or brown leather; a threadbare sofa, an old armchair and a rickety table was about all there was in the place.

Aside from the gloom, the place had an air of neglect, as though it was not usually inhabited, which made sense once Gothic explained that the man who lived here spent most of his time teaching at a boarding school.

Forestwind figured that either the job didn't pay very well or this Snape person didn't care much for his home as clearly nothing had been spent on the place in many a year.

"Hard to imagine a child growing up here" the thief heard the Jumper say.

Gothic soon explained to the bosmer that the defences of the house that weren't aimed at keeping non-magical humans out had been created to alert only the owner of the property if it was entered by people while the owner was not home. Since Snape was in stasis there was no one to alarm.

"What about the guard?" Forestwind wondered "Won't they notice something?".

Gothic chuckled.

"The muggle guard, or police as they are called, can't see the house" he explained "And Snape is a dark wizard so he wouldn't want anyone from the Ministry looking around here".

Allnel didn't know who the Ministry were, but this wasn't the time to ask, and her boss would explain later, he always shared information with her when she asked.

"Okay let's ransack the place" Gothic was now saying "I'll sort out the books, you look for magical items and any treasure he might have. The guy must have spent his pay on something".

The house stood at least two stories high, and Allnel found a hidden door set in the wall of books, which revealed a narrow, ascending staircase, up there were two bedrooms. Both lacking in anything that suggested that people ever used the place.

Nor did she find anything of value in upper part of the house, Snape kept a very clean, and very barren residence.

Before long she found another hidden door that lead to a storeroom where elf-made wine was kept. Some of this Allnel took for herself, placing it in one expandable bag, while the rest would be given her to boss, who would either destroy the stuff or find some use for the booze.

Allnel even found a safe which contained a lot of coins, they were gold, silver and bronze, she pocketed some for herself, and handed over the rest. She would never take anything her boss might actually need, but she was sneaky thief type, and this was Gothic's fault as he'd decided on her character.

By the time the wood elf was done with her stealing, she found that the Jumper was still sorting through the books, and she figured that he would be at this for some time so the Bosmer decided to try out the wine that the elves of this world had made. It wasn't as if she'd be driving them back to the base.

(Line Break)

**Gaunt Shack. Little Hangleton.**

The cyborg known as Cameron did not feel emotions strictly speaking, she could simulate them to an extent, and while these simulated emotions didn't direct her behaviour, like with humans and human like creatures, it would be far to say that Cameron was unhappy.

She was less than pleased with the choice for this Jump as due to the effects the school called Hogwarts had on certain technology, the Terminator couldn't stay with the human she was suppose to protect and serve.

Of course she didn't blame Gothic for this state of affairs, Cameron knew that this Jump had been the choice of the companion known as Morgana, she had far too much influence over Gothic. The cyborg suspected that this influence had to due to the human weakness of feeling love.

Physical danger wasn't the only issue for the Terminator. Gothic had become very powerful as the Jumps progressed, and was well aware of the threats of this world, so the risks to his life were manageable.

No what concerned her more, if that word was the right one to use, was that Gothic didn't have her to look after him. She couldn't monitor his diet, remind him to exercise, or help him sleep by having sex with him.

Although given that he was a child most of the time she would have employed different methods to ensure that the human got the sleep he required. Bedtime stories and warm milk would have been her chosen method.

If Cameron could feel annoyed, then she would upon discovering that Gothic had taken Forestwind with him on a mission to raid the lair of a dark wizard. Sure the cyborg wasn't able to use magic, and wouldn't be of help sorting through spell books, yet she should have been there.

At least the Jumper was showing good judgement in bringing Cameron along with him on this very dangerous mission. They were here to track down and recover a powerful magical artefact while also destroying another item, which could prove to be a threat.

The item they sought, the two artefacts were connected, was hidden in the former home of Marvolo Gaunt, as well as his children Morfin, and Merope, who were all now dead. In life they had been the last remaining descendants of two important wizards, Cadmus Peverell and Salazar Slytherin.

Their proud and noble lineage had been reduced to three people who lived in poverty, while speaking Parseltongue to each other as they all went mad.

Humans sometimes did this, at least the going mad part, and Gothic had explained that the source of the insanity was generations of inbreeding by the so called purebloods of the magical world. The Jumper explained that this was one of the reasons as to why he'd selected a Half-Blood background for this Jump.

Morgana had chosen to become a Pureblood, and this made Cameron wonder if she'd go crazy, which was what the version of her in Gothic's files had done. The cyborg would have to keep a closer eye on the Seer in the future.

Cameron listened as the human she served explained to her that the gold that should have kept the last of the Gaunts in luxury had been squandered several generations ago. Gothic had no details about how this happened, and it hardly mattered.

What did matter was that after the deaths of the last three Gaunts, the shack was deserted completely, yet it was not cleared away by the villagers of Little Hangleton, which it should have been since even Cameron could see that the shack was an eyesore. Also it would make a poor hiding place for any hiding despite its remote location due to its poor state.

Of course the dark lord known as Voldemort must have done something in order to protect his second Horcrux which he hid under the rotting floorboards of the shack. That explained why the hovel was still standing.

"So when Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Voldemort" Gothic was now saying "came to visit Granddad Marvolo so that he could learn about his heritage, he found his Uncle Morfin, and due to Merope no longer taking care of the cleaning the shack, would have found a place even worse than the orphanage he grew up".

While Cameron understood that a poor upbringing was a bad thing for humans, as it could result in them displaying a lot of anti-social behaviour, she didn't think it justified Tom Riddle's actions, which she'd read much about.

"After killing his non-magical father, Riddle framed Morfin for the crime, and left the Gaunt's shack with Marvolo Gaunt's Ring. With that, the shack became abandoned for years, and continued to deteriorate" Gothic informed the cyborg "Then at some point later he turned the ring into a Horcrux and placed it here".

While Cameron had downloaded the files about this world, they were incomplete as Gothic hadn't placed all he could remember about this world into easily accessible files.

"The Horcrux is a ring, and on that ring is a stone" the Jumper said to Cameron "I need you to destroy the ring, without damaging the stone. I'd do it, but the ring is cursed, it will compel me to put it on and that will infect with me some nasty dark magic".

From his pouch appeared an ornate looking sword, which he passed to the Terminator.

"Use this to destroy the ring and bring me the stone" he ordered.

The closest thing that Cameron could feel to joy was the satisfaction of a mission she had succeeded in, so she quickly entered the shack, located the lose floorboard, obtained the box containing a ring, and used the sword to destroy the ring, which she felt no compulsion to wear.

This resulted in a strange discharge of energy, but nothing else, and soon the cyborg was able to recover the stone that her master so desired. He would be pleased.

She knew the stone to be The Resurrection Stone which was one of the fabled Deathly Hallows. In _"The Tale of the Three Brothers"_, it was the second Hallow created. It was bestowed on Cadmus Peverell, supposedly by Death himself.

The story stated that Death made it as a reward for cheating death. Death asked each brother what they wanted and Cadmus asked for something with the power to recall loved ones from Death.

Death won out in the end, as the two of the Hallows each led to one of the brothers' deaths, for Cadmus killed himself after realising the limitations of the stone and due to wishing to join his departed lover.

Also according to legend, whoever reunited it with the other two Hallows (the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility) would become the Master of Death. Perhaps Gothic intended to claim the other two Hallows in the future.

Even if he didn't the stone alone was highly useful, assuming it worked, and assuming that you had no emotional attachment to whomever it was you summoned. If Gothic used to summon the spirits of those whose knowledge had been lost to time then he could obtain vital information.

Cameron would request that she able to sit in on these summoning sessions in case Gothic showed any signs that he was going to attempt to kill himself, as far as she knew everyone the Jumper cared about was alive and well, in one reality or another, so he would most likely use the stone for intelligence gathering.

"Good girl" Gothic praised as Cameron handed him the stone and the sword.

For a fraction of a second the Terminator had considered kneeling before her master as she presented him with the prise, but she'd noticed that level of devotion, while deserved, seemed to make him uncomfortable, at least some of the time. Her latest update hadn't helped with that.

The Jumper patted her on the head and praised her, but this did not please Cameron, her preference was to be patted on the butt as thanks for a job well done, which she reminded Gothic about, and he soon patted her butt, which gave her a sense of satisfaction, or something close to it.

"I've always wondered why people only ever use this to call up dead loved ones" the Jumper was now saying "I get wanting to see them again, but not everyone has lost someone close to them. What do you do with it when you don't have a lot of your family in the grave".

Cameron knew that Gothic already had an answer to this question and so didn't speak.

"I'd do stuff like call up famous people and find out how they really died, or find who really did build the pyramids" the Jumper went on to say "Maybe it only let's you summon people you had a connection to in life".

If that was true then Gothic would have little use for the object as all the people he cared about were alive, as least as far as Cameron knew.

"Right let's get back to base" the Jumper said as they left the shack behind.

Before long the two of them were beamed away in a flash of light that went unseen.

(Line Break)

**Chamber of Secrets. Hogwarts.**

"Once we're done here we'll need to spend some time in public in our child forms, or people will wonder where we're getting off to" I said to Morgana and Serana as we finished setting up our new base "Which will be easier for you two since you have friends".

Despite my efforts I hadn't gotten very close to any of the natives, which didn't concern me as I had plenty of time to recruit a witch or two as a companion.

"You need to socialise more" the Seer advised, as she used magic to vanish some of the leftovers the basilisk had left down here "Take some time to do things children do".

Unlike Serana and Morgana I hadn't really gotten into the role of Hogwarts student. Perhaps I should try harder to find an activity I could enjoy that somehow involved the children that filled this castle. I'd give it some thought.

Currently I was laying things out on a table that I'd gotten from the Room of Requirement, one that I'd been able to fit into my pouch after applying the shrinking charm. This junk was non-magical so it was easy to re-size and repair.

Looking over at Serana, who was messing about with the dead basilisk, I couldn't help feeling a little freaked over what she was doing. Rather than trying to harvest the corpse for potions parts she was turning the creature into a zombie of sorts.

Once finished this Chamber would have an undead guardian that was under Serana's control. It wouldn't be able to kill with a glance, as she'd removed the eyes, but its bite should still be deadly since in the books/films the basilisk's fang were used to destroy Horcruxs years after the monster expired.

Her working on the corpse was a little creepy, yet kind of comical, as she was stopping every so often, taking off her gloves and then taking bites of a sweetroll, which had come from a magical knapsack that Morgana paid for with CP for the Skyrim Jump.

I had thought that the knapsack was a total waste of CP, but its ability to produce sweetrolls, which were super yummy, actually proved to be worthwhile as even when we weren't in our child forms we all enjoyed sweetrolls. Plus it provided other things.

"Don't judge me" Serana said "You're the guy with all the skulls".

To be fair I did have an impressive collection of creepy looking things, most of which we're very useful.

"And what is wrong with being a skull?" one of them asked.

Serana was barely phased by the site, however Morgana was a little taken aback.

"This is Boni" I told the ladies "If you were born in the 1980's you'd know why I just had to buy him".

Which of course neither of them did.

"Boni is a character in a children's show that was made here in the UK" I explained "He's a talking skull who is suppose to watch over a trapdoor that leads to a place full of monsters. I thought that he could watch over this place for us and he'll tell us if anyone other than us comes down here".

We'd noticed if anything went missing, but someone could find their way down here and take a look around. The zombie snake monster wouldn't be ready for sometime and wasn't very subtle.

"He also claims that the character was based on him" I then said.

Boni spoke again, enforcing his claim, but was ignored. I figured that it was possible that some Muggleborn met the real Boni and then went on to write for children's shows in the Muggle World.

"This skull is a magical hooka" I was now saying "If someone who has visions uses it they can share the vision with others".

I'd not test it yet, and if it didn't work I'd damn well get a refund, however that turned out not be a concern as I was able to use it to show my Force Vision of Granger getting splatted by a troll.

"It works on visions granted by the Force" I said "I wonder why?".

The skull hooka was meant for Morgana, who was a real Seer, perhaps it worked because I was magical and had visions even though the visions themselves weren't the product of magic.

"I noticed that she was at the feast on Halloween" my wife mentioned "I forgot all about the troll nearly killing her until I saw her".

Serana was a little confused so the sorceress explained about how Granger was suppose to have nearly been killed by the Troll at Halloween, and how I'd prevented it. Not that I would have needed a vision to do that.

On the subject of visions I had other means of seeing into the future, an example of this was a scrying mirror which was used for Catoptromancy was a method of divination which used mirrors. This wasn't covered in Divination classes until you reached NEWT level, but Morgana should be able to use such devices.

"We'll move some of this stuff to our base in Little Whinging" I told the ladies "But I want to keep using the Chamber when possible since Hogwarts is the magical version of a Force Nexus".

If magical energy could be tapped into then Hogwarts would be able to provide massive amounts of magical energy. It would be having a geothermal power planet that provided mystical power rather electrical. There had to be a way to use that.

"I was wondering if you'd gone into the Forbidden Forest yet?" Morgana asked me.

This struck me as odd.

"Why would I do that?" I asked.

Voldemort was in there somewhere killing unicorns, which sucked sure, but while I was taking out his Horcruxs, he wasn't really my problem.

"I was thinking that there could be a place in there that is strong in the darkside" she said.

Well it did seem like the kind of place, and if there was I could visit it in order to learn more, such locations, which could be concentrations of energy either light or dark, didn't grant visions strictly speaking, as they only contained what you brought into them, but they could allow you better understand things that you already knew, which could include visions that you didn't fully understand or remember.

"I can look into it" I said "But for now we should head for our common rooms before a prefect starts looking for us".

We all had some homework or studying that we could be doing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 10**

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

I walked into the Common Room that was within Ravenclaw Tower, and saw two of my fellow 1st year Ravenclaws, Terry Boot and Micheal Corner, who were both concentrating hard on the game that was in front of them.

They were playing Wizard's Chess, and taking it very seriously, which was no surprise as many first years wanted to beat Potter's sidekick, and only I had come close, I would have beaten the red haired menace if not for Morgana assaulting my mind with telepathic singing.

It was Terry's turn and I watched how he approached every possible option for movement on the chess board before he made his move. His white queen, generals as they called them, charged a castle, a rook as a muggle would called it, and I watched as the rook crumpled to the ground after taking a thrashing from the the white general.

I went over to them and sat down on the sidelines of the chess board. I had some thoughts going through my head right now, which could involve some very advanced charms work.

"Hey, Damien" Micheal greeted.

I was thinking about why so few muggle games had been converted into magical versions. They had chess, exploding snap and marbles, which shot gunk out for some reason, but that seemed to be about it as far as I could tell.

"Do you think they'll ever make a Wizard version of Scrabble or Wizard's checkers?" I asked thoughtfully.

The focus of the two boys was broken by my questioning. Terry gave me an aggravated look, clearly he did wish to be distracted.

"What are you talking about, Pendragon" he said.

With effort I ignored his tone of voice. I wasn't use to people talking to me without at least some respect.

"I was wondering if any other Muggle games have been converted into Wizard games" I said "There are so many Muggle games that could be enhanced by magic".

Already I'd though of a few.

"Why would that matter? Wizard's Chess is the best game; there doesn't need to be anymore" Terry stated.

The other boy didn't seem as annoyed by this conversation as his class mate.

"There's exploding snap" Corner said, not knowing that I'd already thought of that "That's a card game".

Yes, but that was the only card game I'd ever seen them play, not that many 12 year old boys knew how to play poker, well not here they didn't.

"Nobody would play Solitaire, Blackjack or Go Fish with a stack of exploding cards" I pointed out "If someone was stupid enough to try, the cards would just explode in their face and ruin the game".

Perhaps I could just buy some muggle cards and use them in some card games.

"But, exploding snap is only fun because the cards blow up" Boot said, as though it was obvious.

Yes they did like their pops and bangs in the Wizarding World. I'd have to make any converted muggle game more interesting, perhaps I could charm pieces so that they moved on their own stuff like that.

"I have some work to do" I told the two boys.

Without another word I headed for the library.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

Once again I'd taken over a table in the library, and while I had piles of books around me, as I often did, this time there a monopoly board, a replicated muggle one of course, in front of me, as well as many notes that I'd written.

I had so many ideas about how to make the Wizard version of this game so cool, and while the charms work involved, I wanted the pieces to move by themselves, was too advanced for me I figured that I could enlist the aid of an older student.

"What on Earth are you doing?" asked a bossy voice.

I looked up to see the source of the voice, which was of course Granger, she was carrying a large book, and she was looking at me with a very disproving stare.

"This is the library, you shouldn't play games here" she pointed out.

Since I had less emotional control as a 12 year old boy it took some effort to resist the urge to Force Choke the frizzy haired girl, but I would never actually hurt a child, even if I had sometimes imagined myself doing it. Humiliating Malfoy was not the same thing, and besides it way too much fun not to.

"I'm not playing a game" I corrected "I'm reinventing one, or redesigning might be a better word for it".

That got her interest and she took a seat, it became clear to me that she was going to keep staring at me until I explained. She was giving me another look, I really didn't think that girls her age should look so intense.

"The Wizarding World has a limited number of games" I started to explain "I don't what adults do for amusement, as all the games I've seen are aimed at children, and the selection isn't that great. So I've decided to take some muggle games and make them more wizard friendly".

She was still looking at me, staring intently, I didn't understand why. What did she want? I could try to read her mind, but I stopped myself as what was in her head might be very unsettling.

"Monopoly is a nice family game so I decided to start with that" I was now saying, feeling compelled to talk "I'm trying to come up with Wizard versions for the game pieces and locations on the classic monopoly game".

I was having trouble finding enough places to buy when playing the game as the wizarding population wasn't very high, at least when compared to the modern Muggleworld, and there were no wizard districts in London aside from Diagon Alley so I had to venture out.

So far I had places like Hogsmede, Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley and Godric's Hollow, which could be divided into business and single locations if needs be.

"Spells and Potions" Granger read "Ministry?".

Those were the cards I had planned.

"They replace Chance and Community Chest" I explained "The Ministry will issue fines and refund taxes, or even send you to Azkaban without a trail, while Spells and Potions add a bit of silliness to the game. Accidentally drinking a love potion makes you spend some money of gifts for someone for example".

Granger still looked annoyed? confused? hungry?, she was having some sort of feeling that was for sure. I was pretty sure that I didn't want to know what was going through her head or how she was feeling right now.

"I'm going to have pieces that move on their own" I was now saying "I'll have to find the right charm for that".

There was one I was sure, I would just have to find it.

"I'll find the right charms" Granger decided, while standing up "You might get them wrong".

Wow she was a little control freak, I'd be so glad when she matured in future years and learned that other people could be right about things, and also that teachers could be wrong about stuff.

"Well I could do with some help" I admitted.

I didn't have the charms expertise for this, and if she handled the boring task of finding the right spells it would save me some time.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Wizarding World.**

One of the benefits to sneaking around the castle at night with a magic map was that you became aware of when other people were sneaking about. People like that Potter boy, who for a few nights now had been leaving his Common Room and going to what seemed to be an empty classroom.

I knew why he was going to that room so often, and this was confirmed one evening when I left the library before I had to.

Granger followed me, no doubt wondering why I wanted to leave the library before it closed, and I allowed this as I was curious about what she would see in the mirror. I also intended to show the magical item to Morgana and Serana at some point, but I wanted to check it out first.

"Damien, where are we going?" Hermione wished to know.

I smiled at her.

"You'll see" I told.

As soon as I saw it I knew that The Mirror of Erised was a very old device. I had no idea who created it, or how it came to be at Hogwarts School, I did know that it had been at this school for some time, as Dumbledore used in the second Fantastic Beasts movie, which I'd gotten a copy of somewhere.

The Mirror of Erised could be good or evil, or neither, depending on how you saw it. Dumbledore would most likely warn Potter about wasting his life by staring into this mirror, Potter visited it every night, but Potter's sidekick only used it once and then lost interest so it hadn't been created to harm people was my thinking.

Perhaps it could serve some use by showing people their true desire and therefore giving them a clearer idea of what would make them happy should they work to earn it. Having something to work towards, a goal, could provide a person with motivation.

That made sense as the Weasel boy wanted to match up to and perhaps even surpass his older brothers, who were somewhat successful, by become Prefect, Headboy, and so on. However knowing this didn't drive the sidekick to achieve anything, although that might just be his laziness.

In the books and films it was only after Professor Dumbledore made a few modifications to the mirror does it become of real use to anyone, as a hiding place for the Philosopher's Stone.

Which was something that I had no need for since I was already immortal and replicate all the money I ever wanted. I even had the Mage Stone, which could turn any element into another element, such as lead into gold.

The mirror's inscription ('erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi') must be read backwards to show its true purpose, and Granger didn't seem to pick up on that as she was too busy looking at whatever it was the mirror was showing her.

"I got all top marks in my exams" Hermione was now telling me "There's an award. I'm older, Professor Mcgonagall is making me Prefect and Headgirl".

Strange how her desire was so like the Weasel's, only she wanted academic success for the sake of success, not to outshine anyone, although she also wanted attention for it. Maybe they were more well suited to each other than I'd thought.

"Golly" Granger said next "Do you think this mirror shows the future?".

I sniggered, an she took offence at that.

"Scrying with a mirror to see future events is possible" I told the mage student "But this mirror is showing you your greatest desire".

I gestured to the inscription above the glass.

"'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi'" I read out "If you were read that in the a mirror, making it backwards, it would say, I show not your face, but your heart's desire".

Granger took a few moments to process all of this.

"What do you see, Damien?" the girl then asked.

I had my turn, and I saw something which I had no words for, but I understood what it meant, freedom, and the power to go anywhere I wished, to do anything I wanted, to live forever, to see everything, and no one to get in my way.

Then I realised what it was that I looked at right now. The Spark of a Planeswalker, and not the watered down version, I wanted the power of a true Planeswalker, the immortals who could build and create realities, snuff out stars, and bring life or death on a whim, to be someone who the gods themselves feared.

"Well, what do you see?" the bossy girl demanded to know "What is your desire".

She wouldn't understand, I wasn't sure that I really understood, what I had just seen, so I was forced to lie, or at least omit the truth.

"To be a great wizard" I said.

Which was a desire of mine, but not the greatest one, and my desire made sense since the Spark in the goal of all Jumpers, if it wasn't our greatest desire we'd never be able to reach the End Jump.

I was a long way from that final Jump, and if I was ever going to get there then I needed to become a lot more powerful. Thankfully I had time, a lot of it.

(Line Break)

**The Chamber of Secrets. Wizarding World. **

I should have stayed away longer, and have spent more of my time sleeping, but I hadn't been able to resist coming down into the chamber. Sol had flamed me down here, I had to enter this way as I didn't know how to talk snake, and it would look odd if I followed Morgana into a girl's bathroom.

While keeping an eye on the Marauder's Map, so that I would notice if the teachers and prefects began searching the castle for any missing students, I worked on creating a summoning circle.

The summoning circle was meant to for the summoning of unbound daedra, who unlike daedra brought into the mortal world via a less powerful spell, wouldn't vanish after a short time and could even attack the summoner.

With time, the right methods, and a good teacher, all of which I'd gotten at the College of Winterhold, a mage such as myself, could learn to summon up a variety of daedra, many of which had uses. Which of course I had learned to do.

If handled correctly Atronachs for example could provide special salts which had uses in potion making, or if you were very skilled you could summon up a Dremora, and have him fetch you a sigil stone, there was even a Dremora merchant who would sell daedric arms and armour, as well as a few oddities, for a price.

Thanks to the Skyrim Jump I was able to use the magic of that realm, including summoning of daedra, but I had to be careful about this, the last thing I wanted to do was gain the attention of a Daedric Prince.

It was unlikely that they could find this world unless they had some sort of link to it, like say one of their artefacts, which I had none of, only a few copies provided by Jump Chain which lacked a connection.

Thinking on I realised that I might be able to call them up if I built a shrine and used the right summoning materials, because that was how it worked in Nirn and I could use magic the way it worked in that world while elsewhere.

I did find it amusing to imagine what would happen if I introduced say Luna Lovegood to Sheogorth, but what if someone like Molag Bal found this world, one that didn't have the Divines watching over it.

We could end up with Oblivion Gates opening up everywhere, the world would be plunged into chaos, and Mora guy, the god of knowledge, he would find some way to plug into the Internet I just knew it.

Which could be amusing to watch, from Mars.

Looking at the map I noted that Potter was spending another night in front of that damn mirror. For some reason Dumbledore still hadn't shown up to stop this madness, he wasn't even in the castle.

Thinking on I realised that this could be an opportunity if handled right. Assuming that things were on track, and they should be since I was sure that the Headmaster would manipulate events to suit his agenda, the the young hero must be wondering what was hidden up in the third floor corridor.

While Granger had wondered about a certain alchemist, she might not have shared that information with Potter. Even if she had I knew that she wasn't hanging out with the Boy-Who-Live, so Potter might not know about the stone.

Perhaps I could get something from him in exchange for the knowledge he desired, but what did he have that I wanted? I had money, power, much more information?, so it would have to be some sort of item he had that I desired.

Thinking on it I realised that if he had access to the house that contained the locket horcrux, perhaps I could task the lad to fetch it for me in exchange for the information he desired about events here at the school.

The one thing Potter had that I wished for the most was his cloak as that was one of the three Hallows. I possessed the stone already, and perhaps I could take the Elder Wand sometime in the future without harming Dumbledore, but the cloak had to be passed on, it couldn't be stolen or won, you had to be given it.

Potter would never give up that cloak, at least not right now, but some day down the line, if he was desperate enough, he might give it to me willingly. Then I could go after the Elder Wand and be the Master of Death, whatever the hell that meant.

I might not take all the Hallows with me when I left this world, but I should still try to collect them. With that in mind I called for Sol, and had him take me back up to the school. Summoning daedra could wait. There was something else I needed to do tonight.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

Harry was lost to the world, he was lost in both joy and sadness. His family was just here, he could see them clearly, but he was still alone. He wanted to cry and smile at the same time. It was an odd feeling, one he didn't understand, yet found highly addictive.

"You'll waste away sitting in front of that thing" someone said.

The Gryffindor stumbled and began to frantically look around, his eyes filled with fear and heart hammering in his chest. Someone had caught him, probably a teacher who might expel him, and he'd forgotten his wand, if he was in danger he wouldn't be able to defend himself.

Quickly he found the source of the voice, it was coming from a man, or something man shaped. He, if it was a he, had a face that was hidden behind a mask of some sort, and he wore dark grey robes, he even had a hood up.

"Who… who are you?" the Boy-Who-Lived stammered.

Any thoughts of expulsion were gone now as Potter knew for certain that this person was no teacher. He almost ran away, but he didn't think he was in any danger even if this cloaked figure did seem scary.

"Who are you?" Harry asked "Wha... what are you?"

While the stranger's face could not be seen, the young wizard couldn't help thinking that the masked man was amused for some reason.

"My name is Gothic" said the unknown person "And I am a Jumper, an Alliance Marine, a Spectre, an officer, an explorer, a warrior, a knight, a vampire hunter, a wizard, the list goes on. What matters right now is that I am someone who can help you. For a price".

So this man was here to make him some sort of offer? Harry wondered.

"You have something I want" the masked man was now saying "And it can only be given freely, never taken, and one day you'll give it to me freely, but we can worry about that later. What I'm offering you right now is knowledge for a price, there is something I want that you can get for me".

Harry Potter didn't like the sound of this.

"I want nothing of you" he declared.

The man in mask chuckled.

"Oh, but you do. I can tell you who Nicolas Flamel is. And if it's not enough for you, I know what is stored on the third floor and who is trying to steal it" said the hooded figure.

Harry was shocked to say the least.

"You do? But... how?" he asked.

The masked man made a dismissive gesture.

"Does it really matter?" the stranger asked Potter "The point is I know things that you don't and I need something from you

Harry hated to admit it, but this stranger was right. He needed answers, and he could have them… but at what cost?

"The cost is a locket that can be found in the home of Sirius Black, which you can fetch for me" said the hooded figure "It is a locket made of gold with a serpentine _S_ in glittering green stone inlay on the front. I don't care how you get it, just bring it to this school and I will take it from you. Once you find it, hide it, don't wear it or even look at if you can avoid doing so".

Harry was both concerned and confused.

"But… it doesn't belong to me" he protested "That would be a stealing".

Yet he was tempted.

"I'm willing to give you more than mere information on events at your school for that locket, so much more" the masked man told Harry "I can tell you where your parents are buried if that is what you wish to know".

And now, Harry was no longer just curious, but feeling completely overwhelmed too.

"I'll get for it for you" the Boy-Who-Lived promised "But I can't get it until Easter".

He wouldn't be able to visit Sirius's house before then.

"There's no rush" said the masked man "Well not for me. But know this: What is hidden at this school will not remained here forever".

The robed figure made to leave, but then stopped.

"If you doubt my offer, just check the back of Dumbledore's chocolate frog card" he said.

Harry Potter soon raced out of the room, but the man was gone, once he realised that he headed for his dorm room, he needed to find his chocolate frog cards.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World.**

I was confused. All around me people were running around making last minute preparations for something called Valentine's Day, which had required much thought from me to remember anything about as I'd not experienced this holiday in any meaningful way since before Jump Chain started.

The day wasn't important in any of the universes I'd visited until now. Even when I'd lived on Earth, which I hadn't done in over a decade, they'd not had this holiday, they'd celebrated pagan holidays, and not the versions spread by Christianity.

I noticed very quickly that only the boys were preparing. The girls just sat around, which struck me as unfair, if this day was suppose to be a celebration of romantic love then the girls should make some effort too. Boys also desired to be loved, well not me personally, and I didn't need to bother finding love as I had a harem.

Still I figured that Morgana and Serana might want to me do something, and maybe Granger too, I doubted she cared that much, or at least she might act like she didn't care. She was after all a girl.

Not knowing who else to turn for advice on what to do I approached Roger Davies, who should know something about making girls happy since I could remember him taking my Au Pair's little sister Fleur to the Yule Ball in forth year, if he could score a Triwizard Champion then he must know something about making girls happy.

"Hey Davies, can I have a moment of your time?" I enquired.

The young lad was working on a card, placing charms on it so that the love hearts fluttered about, it was sickeningly pretty.

"Sure, what can I help you with?" he asked

At first I wasn't quite sure how to get the information I required, then I figured out that it might be best to be direct.

"Well I've never celebrated Valentine's Day in the Magical World so I'm unsure of what I'm supposed to do" I said "I know a little about how the Muggles handle this day, but there could be differences".

Thankfully Lockhart and his dwarves were an issue for next year.

"Valentine's Day is straight forward enough" Davies told me "If you like a girl, you give them something that they'd like, then you show them a good time and you get a kiss or something more if you are lucky".

Despite not being that much older than my current body this young man seemed to be very interested in getting lucky. It amused me, but I hid my mirth.

"Damien, is there a girl you like?" he asked me.

A few.

"Yes" I answered.

Davis smirked.

"Well go to that girl, give them gifts, and ask them on a date" I was told "and before you say anything, a date is where two people who like each other do something that the girl enjoys. I'm taking Cho Chang down to the Black Lake for a walk".

I had heard that she was the prettiest girl in Ravenclaw house so Davies seemed to know what he was about.

"How come the girl is the only one getting anything out of this?" I wondered "I mean they get gifts, attention and possibly kissing, what's in it for me".

Davis struggled for words.

"I'll tell you when you're older" he said,

Since I knew he meant sex I still wondered why any guy bothered with it before they reached an older age. I didn't have to bother at all I had Cameron, and I took the time to show my other girls affection when I could. I didn't need a special day for it. This holiday was stupid and sexist, towards men.

Still I did need to make more of an effort to blend it so I might as well go and make a fool of myself like every other boy in Ravenclaw House.

"So how do I acquire these gifts?" was my next question.

I could replicate them, but again I felt it important to do things the same way as the other boys in my house. As it turned out some of the older students would buy what you needed from Hogsmede on the morning of Valentines Day, and bring it back to the castle, before heading out again.

This meant that I just had to entrust someone a few years older than me to not run off with some of my gold. Not that I was concerned, if they did cheat me I would hunt them down and seek my revenge.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Magical Britain.**

Hermione took her time to realise that this wasn't a prank and that the boy in front of her was serious about her being his Valentines. There were even flowers and chocolates involved, and the witch knew that she shouldn't eat the sweets, or at very the least she shouldn't let her parents know that she'd eaten so much sugar. They were dentists after all.

After Damien took Hermione's offered arm they slowly started walking towards the exit of the Great Hall, and the young Pendragon didn't seem bothered at all by the looks he was getting from some of the students in her House.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked trying keep her smile from splitting her face.

Before long the young Pendragon entered the library dragging a still smiling and giggling Hermione to their favourite table. The smile slowly faded, being replaced by confusion when she saw the young wizard taking out his school supplies along with an essay that was due for next week.

"Damien? Why did you bring me to the library?" asked Hermione her voice becoming angrier after every word.

"To study." the magic users answered.

This answer did not please the witch

"Your idea for a date is for us to do homework and study in the library!?" she demanded to know.

Damien didn't seem at all concerned about Granger becoming upset, which only served to upset her more.

"A date is when two people do stuff they like while together" Damien explained "And I know you like to spend time in the library and I don't really know what else you like to do, so I thought you would enjoy studying together. Only this time we'll study whatever it is you want to study".

Hermione found that this was logically in a very Ravenclaw way, and it wasn't as if she'd ever spoke of any interests out of books and schoolwork, so how was he suppose to know what else she liked.

"Thank you Damien" she said "This is very thoughtful and sweet of you."

She waited a moment before saying something else

"I can hardly wait to see what you come up with next year" she said.

Now the young wizard looked worried, which was exactly the reaction the witch had been wanting.


	11. Chapter 11

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 11**

**Hogwarts. Magical World.**

Because of how Easter moved around on the calendar, and because Wizards are strange we ended up having Pancake Day after Valentines Day, which I'd spent with Granger as part of my effort to possibly recruit her

Serana and Morgana had minded me focusing efforts elsewhere as they'd gotten plenty of attention from boys in their houses. Which didn't concern me for now as it was all innocent, but we have to find a way to deal with the romance issue in years to come.

I didn't want any guys get their hands all over my companions, however I also didn't think it fair to deny them the chance to enjoy the more wholesome aspects of discovering young love while at this school.

That was something I could concern myself later. For now I needed to focus on the pancakes. Not that I minded having pancakes now as it was nice to have real food served at dinner. I was so sick of pumpkin flavoured stuff.

I suspected that in the past some Muggleborn had suggested to the House Elves, who were happy to oblige when it came to making a student happy, that they make pancakes at this time of year, that might explain why the day was wrong.

By now I would have complained about the menu if not for the fact I could just sneak into the Cosmic Warehouse and use the replicators to make whatever I wanted.

Of course I had to be careful as I didn't want anyone to see wandering around Hogwarts with a pizza box. Perhaps I could devise some way of getting Muggle food takeways transported to the school.

Alas this didn't spare me from having to put up with stuff like pumpkin juice at dinner. I'd taken to carrying my thermos with me everywhere, and some House Elf had taken it upon himself or herself to ensure that it was always full.

"Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?" I heard a girl ask the rest of the House.

This young female was Lisa Turpin, a brown haired first year student who had been Sorted into Ravenclaw. When no made an effort to answer her query, either because they didn't care, or because they didn't know. I stepped in.

While I didn't point out that while it was Tuesday, just not a Shrove Tuesday, and I did begin to explain.

"It's a Christian tradition" I told Lisa Turpin, and anyone else who was listening "the 40 days before Easter are known as Lent, and they mark the time that Jesus spent fasting in the desert. While it isn't done much anymore, in times past Christians would mark the period with prayers and fasting, abstaining from a whole range of foods, like what goes into a pancake".

There was more to it than that, so I kept talking.

"Back then before you'd fast for lent, all the food you were suppose to give up had to be eaten or it would go to waste, and food was harder to get back then so it couldn't be wasted" I was now saying "So stuff like butter and eggs, would be used up to make pancakes. Then you were suppose to abstain from such things for lent".

Predictable another first year student asked me a fellow up question. Ravenclaws did love their questions.

"So we can't have pancakes again till Easter" another girl asked.

She looked sad about that, and to be fair they were yummy.

"You're suppose to give something up that you like for the next forty days and forty nights" I told the group "It can be anything you can enjoy eating or even something you enjoying doing".

Before long most of Ravenclaw house had agreed to give up something they liked for lent, and I wondered how they'd last, not very long I guessed.

(Line Break)

**The Chamber of Secrets. Magical World.**

"Do you know what this is?" Serana asked as she held up an orb.

Of course I knew. It was a Sigil Stone, the object that keeps Oblivion Gates open, possibly even creating them, although I suspected that the process of keeping a stable gateway open between dimensions would take a lot of power, far more than a single Sigil Stone could ever provide.

In the Oblivion game they were found inside the Sigilium Sanguis, which is at the top of the largest towers, in the planes of Oblivion. Once the stone is removed, it shuts the gate it was supporting and transports the player back to Tamriel, next to the now-destroyed gate.

"Yes" I answered "It's a Sigil Stone. What about it?".

I'd come down into the chamber to finish setting up our new magic lab, but it was hard to get to work when you had a vampire bothering you with needless questions.

"Why do you have this?" I was now being asked "Do you know dangerous this thing is?".

It didn't seem dangerous at all.

"I was planning on using it to enchant something" I told Serana.

Harvesting souls for the process was not exactly hard, however it was morally tricky since not many people or creatures really deserved to be sent to the Soul Carin.

"This is a daedric artefact" she said "You told me that we couldn't take any with us in case one of the Princes is drawn to this world".

That was why I'd never gone after any of the artefacts, because the Jump Set Up warned that the Princes might take issue with the Jumper removing their relics from Tamriel. The artefacts obtain during the Set Up didn't count as they were Jump Chain made replicas.

"I did say that" I agreed.

Serana looked worried.

"This Sigil Stones was created by Mehrunes Dagon himself" I was informed.

Now I was worried.

"It doesn't matter" said Morgana, who was not at all concerned "Worlds we leave behind are frozen in time until Gothic ends Jump Chain, so as long he keeps moving to new worlds and doesn't die there's no danger".

That might be the case, if not for one issue.

"Normally you'd be right" I said to the Seer "It's just that while the Realms of Oblivion are connected the planet Nirn, which contains Skyrim, they are separate realities, and therefore might not be frozen in time. There is a warning about taking daedric artefacts off Tamriel, which is why I left the quest items and rewards that come from the Princes well enough alone, but if this stone counts as an artefact then Dagon maybe aware of where it is, or at least he may known that it isn't anywhere on Nirn, so he might become curious".

I turned to Serana.

"What do you know about these stones?" I asked the vampire.

She quickly located a book, and began reading out loud.

"A Sigil Stone is a pre-Mythic quasi-crystalline morpholith that has been transformed into an extra-dimensional artefact" she began by saying "Through the arcane inscription of a daedric sigil".

This was already confusing.

"Pre-mythic, morpholith?" asked Morgana "I've never heard those terms before".

Neither had I.

"Pre-Mythic is like saying Pre-Historic" Serana explained "Basically the Sigil Stones predate the creation of the mortal world. Morpholith is fancy term for soul gems and Sigil Stones, the two things are more closely connected than you might think".

Serana then went back to the book.

"Once ready the Sigil Stone can be used to create portals to Mundus from Oblivion".

That part we all knew, and maybe they could be used for trips to other places.

"The morpholiths used to create the Sigil Stone can only occur in pocket voids of Oblivion, and harvesting them requires Daedric assistance. The cleansed morpholith must then be presented to a Daedra Lord so that he can perform the ritual which involves the inscription of the sigil, which will transform the specimen into a true Sigil Stone".

Dagon had created the stone I possessed it seemed.

"Many ready-made sigil stones can be found in Oblivion" Serana read out "and can be obtained by powerful conjurers who force an unbound Daedra into submission. Dremora are often used for this purpose, although their Lord Mehrunes Dagon is angered by this theft".

Which was how I'd acquired one.

"The Daedra Lord and the mechanic of the Sigil Stone must then jointly invoke the conjurational charter, which will transport the Stone through the liminal barrier and create a temporary portal" Serana let us know "The portal only remains open for a brief period of time, depending on the strength of the liminal barrier at the chosen location; the longest recorded time under these circumstances was only a few minutes, making this type of portal rather useless".

Well that greatly limited the danger.

"However during the Oblivion Crisis, the loss of the Dragonfires caused the liminal barrier to slowly weaken and allowed these liminal bridges to remain open indefinitely. This was exploited by the Mythic Dawn and Mehrunes Dagon, who created Oblivion Gates to the Deadlands, allowing the Daedric forces to invade Tamriel" Serana said, before looking up from the book "And we have no idea what kind of barriers this world has, or if anything supports them or not, so there might no danger, or we could all be a in a lot of trouble".

She read some more.

"A method of destroying these Gates was discovered by the Champion of Cyrodiil at the Sack of Kvatch: removing the Sigil Stones from the well-defended keeps in the Deadlands where they were hidden would break the connection, teleporting those near the Stone back to Mundus and destroying both the Oblivion Gate and its Sigil Keep in the process".

I could well remember doing that in the game many times.

"Occasionally, Gates would have multiple Sigil Stones supporting the link between Oblivion and Mundas "the vampire was now reading out "This technique for opening portals was exploited at the Battle of Bruma by the united forces of Cyrodiil (led by Martin Septim) in order to procure a Great Sigil Stone, a more powerful specimen used to sustain larger portals such as the 'Great Gates'".

I remembered closing one of those when playing the game, there was some sort of daedric siege engine you had to stop.

"Each Oblivion Gate which was opened weakened the liminal barrier, eventually completely diminishing it and allowing Mehrunes Dagon pass fully into Mundus. The barriers were restored when the Amulet of Kings was smashed, summoning the power of Akatosh to banish Dagon" Serana ended by saying.

I considered what would happen if Oblivion Gates started popping up all over the Earth, assuming the barriers here weren't super strong, which they could be preventing any problems, then first gates would likely appear here in the U.K first, but only for a short time, since I had the Sigil Stone here in Scotland.

If my understanding of liminal barriers was correct then the first gates would be short lived, but as more were made the barriers would start to weaken, and the gates would stay open for longer.

This was bad as once the gates could remain open for any length of time Daedra would enter this world, and people wouldn't be able to handle it. The Muggles would think that End of Days had come, which it hadn't according my Judgement Day Perk, but sometimes an important event had to take place before I got any warning.

World ending event or not there would be panic, people would blame each other, monsters would be roaming the streets. Of course the military would become involved, they could blockade the gates, and use their superior technology to try to contain the Daedra.

Once blockades and such were set up, some special forces team would be sent into the Deadlands, and while they might lose people, sooner or later someone would figure out how to close the gates.

If the gates were closed then the barriers should remain strong enough to prevent Dagon himself from coming through to this world and destroying it, and if he did enter this realm I had to wonder how strong he would be.

Dagon was a demon god, sort of, but this universe wasn't a realm of Oblivion, it had different rules, and who knew what kind, if any, of higher powers watched over it. So if he manifested in this reality he might not be all powerful.

Still even if he could be killed by weapon's fire from say a squadron of tanks, he wouldn't actually die, he'd reform in Oblivion after some time, which could be days, weeks, months, or even years. Then he'd invade again.

Daedra couldn't be killed with mortal weapons. Caliburn, my dragon forged sword, could kill anything up to a minor god, which meant I could deal with lower ranking Daedra, but the Prince's were on a whole other level.

There wasn't much I could do about the Princes, and there were other issues that could arise if there was an Oblivion Crisis, the gates would draw the interest of other nations, since not all of them would have gates of their own. The world was a big place after all and sigil stones were limited in number.

No doubt the Americans would want to take control of any operations that involved containing and then using the gates to try to shut them down from the source. Also they might have interest in what could be found in the Deadlands.

The Cold War was over, but it hadn't been over for the long, so if the USA tried to control and exploit the gates, then Russia might object. Hopefully no world leader would decide go nuclear over the issue.

Even if it didn't trigger World War 3 I could see it becoming a massive mess even if the daedra were contained. There mere existence of the daedra would force people to look at existence in totally new ways.

The muggles would have to accept that they weren't alone in this universe, and that magic was apparently a real thing. I could see that getting ugly, as the religious types would see the daedra as demons sent by either the devil, which Dagon could pass as easily, or by God as some sort of divine judgement.

Also Dagon was no mere brute, he'd find ways to start cults that would worship him, and those fanatics could do a lot harm if not dealt with. It was even possible that Dagon could give his mortal followers magical powers that they shouldn't have.

All of this was me assuming that it would only be Dagon that we had to worry about. The other Princes could find out about this world, and I could only guess at the sort of things they could get up to on a world that had no Divines to watch over it.

"I think it would be wise to lock this stone up and then contact the others" I said to Serana and Morgana "We might to upscale our operations in the Muggle world, maybe even start working on an off world base".

A moon base wouldn't too hard to set up, and we could expand on that to house a lot of people thanks to our advanced tech. From there terraforming another planet in this solar system wasn't beyond the realms of possibility.

First of all we'd have to expand on our underground base that was in Little Whinging, but that wouldn't be too much trouble as only few of my companions were working on taking over that drill company, which was something we could expand on over the years.

While we wouldn't be able to make use of any FTL ships during this Jump, as this was a setting without FTL travel, we should be able to build some ships with decent sublight drives that in order to get around the solar system. Mars would be the logical choice as a place to rebuild should Earth become a less than friendly place to live in the near future.

"Maybe we should enchant something with the stone" Morgana suggested.

Not a bad idea.

"It might be too late" Serana said "And if it then we might need the stone so that we can open up an Oblivion Gate of our own. We might need to prevent a large scale invasion of this world by attacking somewhere in the Dead Lands".

That sounded reasonable to me.

"Let's put it in the Cosmic Warehouse for now" I decided "Hopefully the funky laws that govern that place will prevent any problems".

Perhaps nothing would come of this, but I had a feeling that Jump Chan might decide to allow some sort of interaction with the Planes of Oblivion, if only to keep things interesting.

(Line Break)

**Little Whinging. Muggle World.**

I was somewhat regretting taking Seven of Nine out of stasis.

"So you may have caused a invasion of this world by extra dimensional creatures, that some more primitive cultures could consider to be demons from hell" Seven of Nine summarised "That was foolish of you".

To be fair I rarely made any real mistakes, and while I may have doomed this plane of existence (or least endangered it as Judgement Day Perk was telling me that the world wouldn't end within the next century) in the grand scheme of things I'd done far more good than harm. I'd prevented entire galactic wars, preserved whole plants, and had saved entire species.

I would not let regret consume me, I'd much rather start working on ways to prepare for the possible demonic invasion rather than try to assign blame on myself or on other people. Then at least I could something about the invasion if it happened.

"A mistake was made" I admitted "I was overconfident in Skyrim because of my powers and my experience with that dimension, and now this world may pay the price for it".

Certain events could trigger an alert by my Judgement Day Perk, something to do with fate or free will, or maybe it was both, it could even be that Jump Chan liked to screw with me. Whatever the case it didn't matter right now. We had other matters to concern ourselves with.

"Should things go horribly wrong, we need an escape plan" I was now saying to Seven of Nine "I have some ideas about that".

Actually I had a few ideas. Including using Matter Bridge technology in order to get to an alternate version of this universe. That tech only allowed access to alternate versions of the universe that you were in, so from here I could only go to other Harry Potter worlds.

Which I would do things got really bad, but it would be hard to start over in another Potter Verse as with Morgana's help Jump Chan had created a complex background for us in this Jump. Well there were ways around that, we might be able to set up new adult identities within the magical world, and pretend to be our own children, or something like that.

I could even remove my cybernetic implants and go apply for the defence against the dark arts teaching job as an adult, that would be amusing. And there were other possibilities involving that technology, which I could place on something as small as a shuttlecraft.

We could find worlds that were ruled by Voldemort of Grindlewald, or worlds that had never contained either of those Dark Lords, there was a great opportunity for exploration in the future regardless of what happened here.

For now I needed to make plans to save at least some of the people of this world should the worst happen, which would be Dagon appearing to trample cities while armies of daedra slaughtered the innocent.

"I did this before, so it should be possible to it again" I was now saying to Seven "In the Merlin verse I set up a moon base. It was a small base, and not that hard to build. I'd like you to set something up on the moon that we can use to evacuate people should this Earth be over run with extra-dimensional creatures".

We had the technology to build colonies on the surface of the moon, or better yet under its surface. It would take time, but we even had technology for that, the tricky part would be making sure that the muggles didn't notice.

Sure they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, but if colonies started appearing on the moon, then they would find a way to interfere, and I'd rather avoid that until the colonies were needed, if they were needed.

"Keep it all out of sight, underground when possible" I instructed "And the moon base will just be a stepping stone to setting up a proper human civilisation elsewhere in this solar system".

Seven of Nine looked concerned.

"That will involve a great deal of work" she pointed out "Resettling tens of thousands of humans, perhaps hundreds of thousands, on Mars is possible, however the resources required will be immense".

I could well imagine.

"You can ask Samantha Carter to assist you" I told her "And take advantage of time dilation and our bots. Tali'Zorah should be able to render aid as well. She's working at company that makes drills, but I doubt it takes much of her time. Cameron has Cortana, my AI can coordinate this project using the bots, get them to do the work, my R2 droid can assist as well. You focus on supervising and don't forget to spend some time enjoying yourself".

The start of the operation would begin here in the Tok'ra tunnels beneath this house, beaming technology would be used to transport robots and equipment to the moon. Those bots would do most of the work.

Moving enough humans to from Earth to Mars would require large ships, but they wouldn't need weapons, or any kind of FTL drive, and only basic shields, so maybe it was time to break out the plans for battlestars. They could be built with technology that was easy to manufacturer and install.

Of course we'd need a shipyard, one under the surface of the moon would be ideal since the one sixth gravity would allow the large vessel to escape the gravity well far more easily than on Earth. Plus since we had phase cloak tech building the shipyard underground wasn't much of an issue when it came to taking off.

"I'll come round to help when I can" I offered the cyborg "But I don't think you'll need it. Just try to keep things simple and maybe set things up on the dark side of the moon to save on cloaking devices".

This wasn't all I had to say.

"You should also have Cameron around most of the time" I let Seven know "She doesn't need to eat, sleep or anything like that, and she doesn't get bored, so don't be afraid to let her do some of the tedious stuff".

No doubt we'd have to discuss many aspects of Seven's work in times to come, for now she could get started without me. I'd drop by soon so that she recover what she needed from the Cosmic Warehouse, but that would have to wait as I couldn't be gone from the school too for long.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Magical World. **

Given the possibility of a future daedric invasion I'd decided to start training in duelling, fighting with wand magic, I had many powers, magical and otherwise, as well as access to very advanced technology and so I could defend myself in a variety of ways, but it would be smart to train with wand magic for a couple of reason.

First of all it was good to have an even large variety of means available to defend myself with. Sure I had many weapons, however most of them wouldn't function here at Hogwarts as something about this place caused technology to break down.

Plus there were always methods that could be used to deprive someone of their powers, that might not work against all the kinds of powers that I had, but I didn't know that for sure. A dementor could disable all of my abilities simply by getting near me.

Also I might need to defend myself without exposing that I had powers that didn't involve waving my wand around, which was actually a rather silly way to do magic if you thought about it. I didn't want to needlessly expose the fact that I had other powers while I was here at Hogwarts, as that would lead to trouble.

To this end I was practising duelling with some sort of mechanical Death Eater, that the Room of Requirement had provided for me when I'd asked for a place to train.

The Room of Requirement had provided with a training area much like the space that had been used by Dumbledore's army in the Order of the Phoenix movie/book. Sol was even hanging out in the Room of Requirement right now, which amused me.

The moving dummy was piece of magical machinery designed for the purpose of Defence Against the Dark Arts, carrying both the likeness of a follower of the Dark Lord and it was bewitched to roll around on its own accord, as such it was an excellent target for those who sought to improve their combat spellcasting.

Judging by the information that was painted on the back of the dummy this device had been produced for Hogwarts by some company that I had never heard of back in the 1970's. Which was when Riddle had been at the height of his power.

It made sense that the students would have trained to protect themselves against these dummies at that time, and judging by the state of the dummies they'd seen some action. I wondered how many students had batted this training device around while it was used in many a Defence Against The Dark Arts classes.

Sometime after the dark lord's downfall the dummies had been put into storage, and while I was only making use of one of them I imagined that they'd see use again before my ten years in this world were up.

"Hey guys and girls" I greeted "Welcome to the Room of Requirement".

Serana and Morgana had already been here before, but Longbottom and Granger hadn't. Of course it was the busy haired one who started asking questions.

"Why is it called the Room of Requirement?" she asked.

Explaining everything about the room could take sometime so I was unlikely to bother.

"Basically this room becomes whatever you require it to be" I told the know-it-all "If you walk past the tapestry outside three times while thinking about what you need the room will provide it, if possible".

I would offer more than that.

"After some testing I've come to the conclusion that the room can be any size from a broom closest to a warehouse" I told my fellow students "but it can't reach the size of say a quidditch pitch, although it comes close".

I hadn't been able to take exact measurements.

"Also it can only provide you with items that have been dumped into this room since it was built" I said "Which I suspected was a thousand years ago so you can imagine how much junk that is".

I didn't need to imagine as I'd seen it. The junk warehouse could take a life time to sort out, and while the Room of Requirement would provide you with all the books it had within it in the form of library, or even a table stacked with one kind of item, it seemed to have limits to what it could organise.

One time I'd asked to give me a place with wands, and I ended up with a table with a few broken wands on it, which was disappointing, but it made sense, however I'd asked for place with games, thinking that I could find other Wizard games like chess, only I ended up with a massive pile of sporting equipment as well stuff for kids games.

"I decided to turn the Room of Requirement into a clubhouse for a study group" I was now telling the whole group "We've got the end of year exams coming up, so I thought that it would be a good idea to be able to practice some of the spells. Learning from books can only get you so far".

Upon hearing that Granger pouted in an adorable way. Clearly hadn't like hearing that.

"We can do potions in here as well" I informed everyone "The room can't provide ingredients, but I can pick some up during the Easter holidays and those of us who are doing well in one or more subjects can help those who are struggling. Serana is a whizz at potions, and I've been hearing good things about Morgana's transfigurations".

Predictably Neville stated that he was rubbish at everything. Getting his parents back hadn't cured his lack of confidence, at least not yet.

"Actually I was hoping you could help us all with Herbology" I said Neville "I'm sure you have an idea of what will be on the exam".

The boy smiled a little.

"Well yeah I guess I do know a bit" he admitted.

I decided to let it go at that so as not to embarrasses him. Besides Herbology was only part of why he was here. As part of my attempt to blend I figured that it was a good idea to get myself a male best friend. Besides Dumbledore would look more kindly on me if I made buddies with one of his beloved lions. The Headmaster favoured his own house as much as Snape had favoured his snakes.

"My best subject is Charms and I'll cover Defence Against the Dark Arts, since a lot of that is knowing which charm to use in a situation" I said next.

"Well you are a little better than me at Charms" Granger allowed.

Morgana and Serana giggled in the way that only first year girls can giggle.

"How big of you to admit it" I said to Granger, and then the whole room "You'll cover History of Magic and Astronomy, and everyone will be required to led the group in the lesson of their subject, but you'll have time to prepare some some of lesson plan for the group session. As long as you think it will help in the exams then you can teach it to the rest of us".

Those subjects were all theory and as such would keep her busy with much in the way of book reading. I had no idea how involved she was in Potter's life, I just knew that he was interested in the stone, and that Granger was too, if they were working together I'd find out sooner or later.

"Since you'll be club leader" Morgana was now saying "I guess you'll decide if we add any new members".

I nodded.

"If there is anyone else who I think could benefit from our little club, and be of benefit to it. I'll bring them along to a meeting, and then we can all decide if they'll be a good fit" I said to the group "I'll also invite someone if any of you think they'd be suitable. We can't let the club get too big as then it will just be a mess".

I had a bit more to say.

"Remember that while we might call it a club, this is just a study group" I said "The clubs have staff supervision and let lots of people join, we're a bit more exclusive".

Plus I didn't want to be monitored. If any teacher did they might wonder why I felt it was so important that we all learn how to protect ourselves when there was no known danger.

"Since I started this little group" I said next "I'll led the group study session for this meeting, and the subject is Defence Against the Dark Arts, I've been practising the disarming charm spell, and by the end of this study session I think we should all be able to perform the spell. Then for the next meeting, which will sometime this week I'll cover the shielding charm before letting someone else led a study session".

The first lesson would be fun and hopefully easy, which would ease everyone into the study group and help us with the exams while allowing me to teach those within the school that I cared about how to defend themselves.


	12. Chapter 12

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 12**

**Hogwarts. The Magical World**

While my study group was no Dumbledore's Army, it didn't have the numbers or the importance to be called something so grand, as study groups went the small organisation I led proved to be both fun and instructive.

Which made me wonder if I'd make a good teacher, sure I'd taken an apprentice in the past, and he'd turned out okay, but I'd never taught a group before and my tutoring of Anakin Skywalker had always been rather haphazard to put it nicely.

Earlier in the week I'd successfully taught my fellow student the spell used to disarm a foe, by separating them from their wand, or any other weapon they might be carrying and it didn't just work on wands.

While this spell might not seem much use in a battle, it was actually highly effective when used against dark wizards and witches as wandless magic wasn't very common, at least in this part of the world.

Wandless magic was difficult to perform, and could have unexpected or even volatile results if not done properly. Therefore, it could only be reliably accomplished by witches and wizards of great skill, as such many dark wizards or witches were next to helpless without their special sticks.

There were exceptions to this rule, more powerful wizard could perform some feats of magic without a wand. Also certain cultures did not traditionally use wands in their practise of magic, thus wandless magic was more common in far off lands.

According to my research these methods something did require tools, such as staffs, crystals and other devices of sorts, or the burning of special herbs. Some magic required complex rituals or long chants in order to achieve their effect.

Which was why it made sense for most magic users in this world to simply wave their wands around, it was so much easier, and of course such frequent use of wands kept people like Ollivander in business.

Another reason why witches and wizards used wands to channel magic, is that it makes the spells more accurate and potent. The wand seems to do most of the actual work, which is why these witches and wizards don't seem to run out of mana.

In contrast the magic of the Old Religion, which didn't require more set up than a few words and maybe a gesture, was much harder to perform, and using too much magic in that way had a physically draining affect.

The magic of Elder Scrolls was the easiest to use because the spells from that world seemed to become something akin to symbiotic organisms, only they were made of knowledge rather than any biological material.

Spells from Skyrim couldn't be forgotten as they sort of nested in your mind, living there while letting you use them to channel and direct magical energy. They could exist in books as well before transferring to your mind, and even be shared, but I didn't understand how that worked.

Right now it wasn't important. I had the magic of this world to concern myself with, and another lesson to give. Now that everyone in the group had learned to disarm an enemy I felt it was time to teach them how to block unfriendly spells.

"The Shield Charm, _Protego,_ is a charm that creates a magical barrier that reflects spells and blocks physical attacks to an extent" I explained to the group "With this spell any hostile spell can be deflected, causing the attack to ricochet or dissipate as soon as it hits the shield".

While there were are multiple variations of the Shield Charm, I would only be teaching Protego Charm as it was both simple to use and a versatile defence.

"When you cast this spell an invisible shield is conjured in front of the you" I was now saying "creating a protective barrier between yourself and the attacker".

I turned to Granger.

"Hermione, try to disarm me" I requested.

The Disarming Charm she tried to use on me caused whatever an opponent was holding at the time, usually a wand, to fly high out of their reach. Another notable effect of the charm is that if multiple charms are used on the same target, or if the caster of the spell is a very powerful witch or wizard, then the target will be disarmed, but at the same time will be blasted backwards.

_"Expelliarmus!"_

_"Protego!"_

An invisible shield preventing Granger's spell from disarming me. I used a circler motion and shouted the word for the spell, but in fact you didn't really do either. The wand movements and words were more about focus than anything. With enough practice the spell could be cast with a simple gesture and no words would need to be spoken.

"This shield can block and reflect a whole multitude of spells, such as jinxes and hexes" I informed the first years "But be warned this shield isn't completely impenetrable, as it cannot block a Killing Curse, and other powerful spells will be able to defeat your shield, so don't think it will make you unstoppable in battle".

No defence was perfect that was why I normally had layers of defences surrounding me so normally I immune to many forms of attack. That wasn't the case right now, but no one was targeting me so I wasn't too concerned.

"Is this going to be on the end of year exam?" Longbottom wondered.

All I could do was shrug.

"Given our defence teacher's stuttering I have no idea what's he's saying half the time so maybe" I said.

Unless you were doing OWL's. or NEWT's the end of year exam was set by the teachers, but our defence teacher might die before then so who knew what kind of test we'd have in the subject, if any.

"If nothing else you can make your parents proud by learning this spell" I said to Neville "And who knows when it might come in handy".

His parents were Auroras so would know the importance of what I was trying to teach their son.

"Now partner up, and practice disarming while also shielding yourself" I instructed.

Since there were five of us that meant there was four students and one teacher in each study session, which made pairing up rather simple. The two loins stuck together, while Morgana and Serana, who were no novices to magic, partnered up.

This left me free to wonder around the training area that the Room of Requirement had provided while watching the others try to disarm each other while trying to protect their own wands. I was able to offer some tips and well as to give support when needed.

Maybe I was a good teacher, only time would tell.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Magical World.**

While it wasn't uncommon for the staff to met regularly in order to discuss the running of the school and the progress of the children, this meeting was a bit different than the others.

"Do I really have to be a part of this?" enquired Professor Vector.

McGonagall shot her an annoyed look.

"Don't be such a bore, Septima" she decided "Helping to arrange these sort of events is part of being a teacher, whether you like it or not".

Professor Vector was known among students as a "really strict" teacher, so much so that some pupils were unsure whether to take her classes. She was also known for giving her pupils plenty of highly complicated and difficult homework. In the absence of Snape, Vector had become the least liked teacher in Hogwarts.

"_I_, unlike all the other teachers, have better things to do than to organise something as pointless as an egg hunt" Vector retorted, while glaring back at the older woman "I have a complex subject to teach and students who need my help".

McGonagall rolled her eyes and gave a deep sigh that said more than any reply made in words could ever have done: it was clear she thought she was the wiser one and did not intend to carry the argument on any further.

The Headmaster smiled as he watched his two colleagues bicker.

"Come now ladies" he said "I'm sure if we all work together we can make this an event that the students will be talking about for years to come. After all we are here for them. Everything we do at this school should benefit the students".

Most of the staff agreed with this sentiment.

"And also beformypersonalamusement," Dumbledore said so quickly that no was quite sure if he'd actually spoke the words.

Before anyone could ask about that the Headmaster spoke again.

"First, the potion. Is it ready yet, Horace?" he questioned.

Slughorn sat up straighter.

"Yes, it is. But surely you don't mean to use..."

He wasn't able to finish his protest.

"A small dose of Felix Felicis will be the grand prize in the Easter Egg Hunt," Dumbledore said.

McGonagall nodded approvingly. A very small dose, too small to be toxic even to a first year, would be an unexpected and wonderful grand prize to be found in the single golden egg that would be hidden somewhere in the castle.

The only concern was that a student might take the potion just before the exam, but there were ways to detect even that form of cheating.

"Albus, do you have _any_ idea what it took for me to make that potion?" asked Slughorn.

He'd actually whipped up a whole batch, but he hadn't intended to give so much of it away. The last little bit of the potion, which he hadn't sold or given to a promising student as a reward, he'd intended to use himself.

"You don't think that's a worthy cause?" Dumbledore asked "Just think of the delight it will bring to one of your students, my dear Horace".

Slughorn quickly gave in.

"Good!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, while turning the deputy headmistress "Have you marked all the eggs and prepared them for hiding?".

McGonagall nodded.

"All you have to do is give the order," she said.

The creation and bewitching of all the eggs had been some work, but she'd gotten some help from the other heads of houses, and the actual work of hiding them was better left younger people.

"Perfect!" Dumbledore said "Now the head of each house will have the job of dividing your students into groups as you see fit. Try to get a mix of boys and girls, as well some older students with the younger ones as team leaders, just help keep the younger children out of trouble. Please assign Prefects to watch over the troublemakers".

This sounded sensible.

"We'll have the lower value eggs hidden in the easier to access parts of the castle, the classrooms, the common rooms, the great hall" Dumbledore was now saying "The higher value eggs will be a little harder to reach, place them in empty classrooms, Hagrid's Hut, the boat house, places students don't normally go".

That wasn't all there was to this.

"Are the prizes hidden the eggs?" the Headmaster asked.

Indeed they were. Some of the eggs were chocolate and contained small packets of sweets, and some of the metal eggs even had some real money in them. One of the larger eggs contain a whole 10 gold coins, which was fifty pounds in Muggle money, quite a bit for a young student.

"Teachers will patrol the school and grounds to ensure that our contest doesn't get out of hand" the Headmaster stated "As planned just before the feast begins I will add up the value of the eggs for each house and assign an equal value in house points, the house with the greatest value of eggs will earn a bonus number of house points, and every student will be able to keep the eggs they found".

That part at least would be simple enough.

"I forgot to ask" said Flitwick "But who is paying for all this?".

Dumbledore smiled.

"Oh the idea and the funding was given to me by a nice witch I met when I lasted visited the Ministry" Dumbledore told his colleague "She's new to the country and wanted to do something nice for the students, I suspect she seeks a job here at the school. Her name was Miss Chan, I think her first name was Jump or something like that. An odd name, but who I am to judge?".

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World. **

While there was no mention of Easter in the films or the books, at least as far as I could remember, that didn't seem to be case in this version of Wizarding World, as the Easter holidays started next week, where did the time go?, and before the term ended there was going to be a special event taking place here at the school.

"_Hogwarts' Easter Egg Hunt"_

The signs put up around the school managed to get the basic information across to the students. Basically classes on Friday afternoon had been cancelled, so between lunch time and the end of term feast, which would be Easter themed I felt sure, we would all be roaming the castle and the grounds while looking for eggs.

We were informed that there would be eggs of all kinds, and that they would be worth points, the House that collected the most eggs might not win if another house collected eggs of higher value. You'd have to go for a mix of quantity and quality in order to win and get your house the most points.

The pictures of the eggs showed that they would come in many shapes and sizes. Ranging from an egg the size of the one seen in the Goblet of Fire movie, to a lone chicken egg sized. Some looked to be wrapped in tin foil while others seemed to be made from some sort of metal.

"Of _course they won't all be_ chocolate, that would make the entire search quite ridiculous, now wouldn't it?" Hermione Granger was currently saying.

Neville, who was standing behind us asked a question

"What's wrong with chocolate?" he wondered.

I had no idea, nor did I understand why Granger thought that all the eggs being made out of chocolate would be silly. They could be hollow and contain other prizes, or the colour of the foil could be used to indicate the value of points of the eggs

"Besides," Hermione continued, ignoring Neville. "it says that there are eggs in all colours, forms and varieties, so that must mean that there will be chocolate eggs _amongst_ other kinds".

There was mention of golden egg that was the grand prize, could be worth a few quid even without what might be hidden inside it, which the Weasel boy mentioned.

"Yes, you would like that now, wouldn't you Weasley?" an unpleasant voice asked.

People from the crowd were shoved aside by Crabbe and Goyle, who were like bulldozers in human form, people were knocked aside, even older children, so that Malfoy could walk up to Potter and his sidekick

"The teachers will have to make sure that your whole family doesn't come over to Hogwarts to search as well, desperate as they are" Malfoy said "it clearly says only _students _are allowed to participate. Not that they'd stand a chance, of course".

Ron's face turned an ugly, well uglier, shade of red, but before he could go for Malfoy, Hermione had stepped forward.

"I've heard that the biggest prize is hidden in the Forbidden Forest," she said

Of course the game would be limited to the grounds and castle itself, but I was sure that such a rumour did exist already. Malfoy was already leaving, and I suspected that he was going to try and trick some other members of his house into going into the forest for him.

"You can all waste your time looking for eggs, but _I_'m not going to spend any of my time on such a silly game" the bushy haired girl was now saying "The exams are coming up already, there's no time to sit around and search for eggs when we have studying to do"

I had to laugh.

"Come on Granger, no one will ever care what exam results we get in our first year" I said to the young witch "I don't think any employer is going to check more than your OWLs. and our NEWTs. before considering you for a job".

I pressed the point I was trying to make, before she could reply,

"Besides if you ever want to make prefect and head girl" I said "You do need to show some school spirit".

Granger chewed her lip for a moment before declaring that he would get involved in the silly game after all.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

As the students who were returning home for the Easter holidays made our way to the train station, in the carriages that most people thought pulled themselves, I lamented the fact that I had been unable to win the small bottle of Felix Felicis.

Of course bloody Harry Potter had won it, and a load of extra house points, he, or more likely Granger, had though to get on a broom and look around from above. Which had allowed Potter to find the golden chicken egg that had ended up on top one of the stands over on the Qudditch pitch.

While in my group I'd looked in all the wrong places. I'd gone down in the kitchens, thinking to check the school's supply of eggs, encase it was hidden among actual chicken eggs, and I'd even found the school's chickens so that I could check their coop.

Of course my group, which was a mixture of Ravenclaws led by one of the older students had done well, not this had mattered.

Putting aside that minor disappointment I reached for the paper. I'd fallen behind on the important business of keeping an eye on the goings on in the magical world, and ever since Serana had brought up the possibility of the deadra tracking my sigil stone to this world it had become even more important to an eye on the news.

While there were no signs of any incoming demonic invasion I did discover that earlier in the year Pandora Lovegood had died in an accident at home while she worked on some project.

Until now I had been under the impression that the death took place further into the past, but in this time line the event was either more recent, or the paper hadn't gotten the dates wrong. It was the Daily Prophet so I wouldn't put it past them.

I guessed that her death had been declared in the paper at the time it happened, and that this piece was a follow up to that declaration. The article told me that Pandora Lovegood had worked for the Ministry, but it didn't mention in what capacity.

Given the secretive nature of both her job and the means of her death I suspected that Pandora Lovegood had worked at the Department of Mysteries, which was a section of the Ministry of Magic that carries out confidential research.

Most of its operations were carried out in total secrecy. Few wizards knew what went on within this department as I'd not been able to find out much about it. What little I did know was that those wizards and witches who worked in the Department of Mysteries were known as Unspeakables because of the confidential nature of their work.

While the department might hold things that would be of interest to me, right now I wanted nothing to do with it, as I had a lot to worry about as it is. Demonic invasions and moon bases, and learning magic were just some of the things on my mind.

Also I was feeling sorry for Luna Lovegood, her mother had died mere months before she would start Hogwarts, and according to the paper her mother had died in a mishap at home, which young Luna had seen.

I wondered if I should go to visit the little witch, she would be in my school house when I started my second year, but I couldn't just pop in without a good reason. Maybe I could come with some excuse after looking at the Quibbler, the magazine written by Luna's father. There might be something in there that I could use as an reason to seek out the editor of the magazine.

After visiting her father I could seek out Luna and befriend her, then keep an eye on her while at school. She was rather an interesting character, and I should consider as her as potential companion in the future.

For now I needed to get out of this carriage and board the Hogwarts express. Which would take me to London, and then it would on to my home in Wales. I suspected that Adele would want to fuss over me.

(Line Break)

**Cae Nest Hall. The Magical World.  
**

Late at night while in my bedroom I put the finishing touches on my prototype sliding device. I had intended to build a puddle jumper with the ability to reach alternate version, but that was rather hard with Adele paying me so much attention.

I'd had to wait until late into the night before I head into my Cosmic Warehouse so that I could replicate some parts and get the right tools for the job. I'd done most of the work within the warehouse, now I was just fine tuning the device.

The sliding machine I was now working on, was a recreation of the technology which had been created by Quinn Mallory on the show Sliders, which was actually an attempt to generate antigravity. But the machine accidentally made an Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky Bridge, a gateway connecting one dimension from another.

The Einstein-Rosen Bridge was a tunnel connecting two universes. The theory for this method of travel between realities was developed by physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen. They came up with the idea that if an object had strong enough gravity well, it could warp space, creating a tear that would link parallel universes.

In my universe of birth the only known object in the universe that could exert that kind of force would be a black hole. The idea being that anyone who could enter the black hole and somehow survive the experience, would find an opening or a "wormhole" that would take them to another universe. That's the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

The problem with the Bridge is that the same force that warps space would crush anyone who tried to enter the black hole. Until recently, it was believed that no one could do it. But in 1963, a mathematician called Roy Kerr came up with a way that someone could approach the black hole, avoiding the force, to enter the wormhole. Not that anyone had tested it as far as I knew.

However on the TV show _Sliders_, the brilliant Quinn Mallory succeeded in the final step, creating a Bridge that allowed people and objects to safely enter a wormhole to cross into another universe.

The sliding machine created an electrical field, that was concentrated on two points; the location of the Slider and the corresponding point in a parallel universe. This field is so strong that it literally rips a hole in the fabric of space, connecting the two universes by a tunnel, called a wormhole.

After that the sliding machine then lines the wormhole with exotic matter, a form of matter that can support the incredible pressure it's under. In this way, the wormhole was shaped into a tunnel that people or objects can pass through. Once the journey is complete, the sliding machine removes the exotic matter, shuts off the electrical field, and the Bridge collapses.

Travel into the new dimension does not change your relative position in time or space, and the wormholes only lead to other versions of the world you'd slide from, as such those worlds would be alternate histories to that of this Earth.

Both the Muggle and Magical worlds that could be accessed by this device would be similar to this one, and yet in ways they would be different.

In these other worlds it could be that America was conquered by the Soviet Union, or Britain could have won the American War of Independence. And that was just the Muggle World, the Magical World might be even stranger.

In Stargate they called sliding tech by the term Matter Bridge technology, and it worked the same way, and I had access to this science and an understanding of it, which had allowed me to make my own Sliding Device.

I'd not tested it yet and the timer was done, so in theory I was good to go. However it wouldn't be wise to test it here in case any of the wards, the magic spells that kept the house hidden from muggles and off any maps, somehow interfered with the creation of wormhole.

With that in mind I knew that there was only one place that I could go. All I had to do was make sure that my Au Pair was fast asleep and then I could call upon Sol and pop out for a few hours in order to have some fun.

(Line Break)

**Little Whinging. Muggle World.**

For this trip I'd decided to take Samantha Carter with me. She had some experience with visiting other versions of Earth, and Seven of Nine had woken her up so that the brilliant woman could help with the Moon Base Project.

"Basically we'll be jumping to a slightly different version of this world" I explained the former air force officer "It should be like this reality, just with some minor differences".

Which wasn't hard for Carter to wrap her head around as she'd visited a number of alternate versions of her homeworld back when we'd been in the Stargate setting. I'd not bothered to use this tech much since then, but with a potential demonic invasion on the way it seemed wise to have an escape plan.

"Why didn't you install the technology in a Puddle Jumper?" she wondered.

In fact I'd been planning on doing as it would make more sense since those craft could turn invisible and fly around a solar system.

"All the Puddle Jumpers are locked up in the shipyard or the space dock" I told Carter "So I'd have to build a shuttle from scratch. In fact I'll leave that in your hands. You should be able to handle building a shuttle using what we have in the base".

Samantha and I discussed that protect for a few moments. The actual building of the ship would require my aid as she would need raw materials that couldn't be replicated, and I could handle that once school had ended, but she could do the design phase by herself and even manufacture some of the parts.

"If you install a phase cloak you won't need to worry about exposing our underground base as you'll be able to fly upwards and into the sky" I said to the blond woman "The power requirement for a phase cloak that's been installed in a shuttle aren't too high".

Carter should be able to call upon the aid of Tali for the engineering work. No doubt my alien babe would love the chance to build a whole new kind of shuttle craft.

"For now we need to test out my sliding device" I reminded "It uses matter bridge technology, but the power requirements are much smaller when you don't need to lug a ship through a wormhole".

The remote was powered by an energy crystal that would normally be found in Ancient pistol or an Ori staff weapon.

"We can double check our equipment and then leave" I said.

Since the exit of the portal would appear in roughly the same place as the entrance, just in another dimension, we had to test the technology out in the open, rather than in the house or the Tok'ra style tunnels. Little Whinging made a good test site as it wasn't a densely populated settlement and there were plenty of open spaces.

As we would be jumping, or sliding in this case, into an alternate version of Harry Potter's world, Carter and I had dressed Muggle, but that didn't mean we were lacking in defences. We both had a layer of Kull warrior material under our normal looking clothes, as well kinetic barriers, and a life support belt.

We also had disruptor pistols hidden on our person in case we ended up in some weird crossover universe and there were invading aliens or something else that would put is into danger.

Once we had double checked our equipment I used the device to create a short lived wormhole to another universe, which Carter and I jumped into.

(Line Break)

**Little Whinging. Alternate World.**

"Looks just like the place we left" Carter commented.

As I picked myself up off the ground, and dusted myself off, I looked around and saw that she was correct. We were even in the same park that we'd vanished from just seconds ago. It could be the same world.

Of course it wasn't. I knew that as soon as I took out a tricorder (my omni-tool was still with Cameron so that she could work with Cortana) and scanned about. The matter of each universe has its own unique signature, for lack of a better term.

My supernatural senses let me know that the Dursley residence was nearby. In the universe I'd just come from Vernon Dursley would soon be arrested for embezzlement and fraud. But in this reality the company he worked for were unaware what kind of man they had directing their firm.

"Let's take a quick look around" I said "And then I need to make a phone call".

Carter, knowing that it wasn't possible for me to know someone in this reality, wondered who I'd called.

"I'll call social services and let them know about an abused child will staying at Number 4 Privet Drive over the summer" I told Samantha "With any luck, and assuming that events in this reality are progressing as others, this summer will be when Potter gets locked up in his room, fed through a catflap and has bars on his window".

Any halfway decent social worker would not react to such a sight very well, and while it would amuse me to see the outcome of such a tip, I wouldn't be around to see it.

(Line Break)

**Little Whinging. Muggle World.**

It hadn't take long to get Samantha Carter on board with the idea of ruining the life of one Vernon Dursley, a project that had started weeks and was now baring fruit thanks the work of Cameron and the AI called Cortana.

At first she'd not understood why Gothic would want make an overweight office worker who directed a company that made drills suffer so much, but it hadn't take the Jumper long to explain this motivations, and once he had Sam was glad that he'd ordered the man's existence to be made hellish.

While out of phase Carter watched and listen as Gothic explained how a boy called Harry Potter had been terrible abused while residing at this address. Even if he hadn't the police who had come over in the middle of the night to arrest Vernon Dursley would have filled in what she needed to no while she overheard what they spoke about.

The entire neighbourhood, which seemed to be populated by some very nosy people, had come out to watch the Dursley family's greatest moments of shame. Vernon had been arrested for embezzlement, fraud and child abuse once the cupboard under the stairs had been examined, and they seen signs that some child had been sleeping in there.

What made matters worse was that the legal guardians of Harry Potter couldn't tell the local law enforcement where the boy was. First Mr and Mrs Dursley had lied about some school called St Brutus, which didn't exist, and then they told the truth, but of course no one believed them.

Carter heard police officers talking about the lack of any possessions belonging to Harry Potter and the empty bedroom, which hadn't been used by anyone in months, might indicate that the 11 year old boy had been murdered by his relatives, and that they had tried to cover up his sudden disappearance with some story about schools that didn't exist.

While looking around the house the former air force officer began to understand why the police might be thinking along those lines. There were no photos of Harry Potter in the house, and his room was so bare you'd think it was prison cell.

The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, was when a police officer brought out a shotgun, which were illegal to own in this country, and then weapon looked as it misfired rather badly, or perhaps someone had tried to destroy the shotgun and had failed.

With an illegal and damaged weapon found in the house, and a missing child who'd not been seen in months, it wasn't unreasonable for the officers of the Surrey police to mistakenly believe that Harry Potter had been taken somewhere and killed by his Uncle, who was already in trouble for several other crimes.

His wife screaming about this all being the fault of those freaks didn't help matters, and neither did their son, who had returned home from boarding school at the end of term, many of the neighbours were telling the cops about what a bully the boy was, and about his bad behaviour was clearly something he'd learn from his monster of a father.

Dudley Dursely was going to end up in foster care very soon as his parents were both suspects in a case involving a missing child so there was no social services would allow to them to care for any child.

Gothic seemed pleased by how this had all worked out, and Samantha couldn't blame him. She'd heard somewhere that this country didn't have the death penalty, perhaps they should rethink that for Vernon and Petunia Dursely.


	13. Chapter 13

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First** **Year**

** Part 13**

**Ottery St Catchpole. England.**

During the second week of the Easter holidays I left the house in order to visit a small town, more of a village really, that was located in Devon. It was presumably named after a Saint Catchpole, however I'd never heard of that person, and he didn't exist in my records, so perhaps he only existed here.

The village was both a Muggle and a magical community, the latter quietly established after the passing of the Statute of Secrecy in the seventeenth century according to my research. I didn't know why some magical families chose to settle near muggles, yet they did and the system seemed to work.

While I suspected that there were some Muggles out there who helped to hide the existence of magic, just as there were magic users doing the same, I doubted that they needed to make much of an effort.

Even some wizard was seen doing so spells on camera and the footage was shown to the whole country, people would just dismiss it as a hoax since as for some reason most humans needed to believe that they were the greatest thing in all creation. I could only assume it had to do with feeding their fragile little egos.

I knew that the Wizarding families that lived in or near Ottery St Catchpole included the Weasleys who lived in The Burrow, as I would soon see for myself, the Fawcetts, the Diggorys, and of course the Lovegoods, who I was also on my way to see.

The Knight Bus had dropped me off near the Burrow, and I'd gotten directions to the Rookery from the driver, as I walked to the Weasley home I saw the Burrow. It was an odd looking structure, it looked as if extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked that it really should have fallen over.

While planning my trip here I'd tried to think of reason for me to visit the Burrow, if only to see what it was like, but I didn't know any of that family well enough to justify simpply popping in. I barely knew the twins, I hardly ever saw Percy and I loathed Ron.

I decided in the end to use my Wizard Monopoly game as justification since Arthur Weasley worked at the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office, and I was making a wizard version of a Muggle game.

Of course I could have gone to see him at the Ministry, but I wanted to avoid that hive scum and villainy for as long as possible. Plus visiting on a quiet Sunday afternoon made my trip seem more casual.

Plus this way I got the chance to see the Burrow in person, and maybe annoy Potter's sidekick in the process, which was always fun.

The Burrow had a small yard at the front of the house, with a garage that I knew stored Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia and Muggle artefacts, and there was a chicken coop that housed the family's chickens. A sign in the ground read "The Burrow" by the main entrance, which would have clued me into the fact that I was in right place even I hadn't recognised the house on sight.

I knocked on the front door and was soon met by the family matriarch Molly Weasly, who looked very maternal, to put it nicely.

"Hello, dear" she greeted "Are you one of Ron's friends?".

I resisted the urge to deny that very loudly.

"Not exactly" I answered "My name is Damien Pendragon. I'm actually here to see your husband if that's okay. Its about a project I'm working on that's based on a Muggle invention. I know he works at the Misuse of Muggle Artefact office so I was hoping for a little of his time".

I presented the box which contained my modified monopoly game, and soon I was led into the kitchen of the Burrow, right away I could tell that it was the social centre of the Weasley family.

The kitchen contained a large wooden table with room enough for eight chairs. All the chairs that were present were mismatched. In fact nothing in this room made much sense, and I was barely able to locate that cloak which told me where all the members of the family were. All of the hands were pointed at home.

I could actually hear the children, judging by the sounds they were playing in the back garden, most likely on brooms. I had no desire to go and socialise with them if I could help it. Ron no more cared for me than I cared for him, in fact as far as I could tell, he didn't like anyone who was outside of his house at school.

"Arthur dear" Molly Weasley said "Got a young man here who needs your help with some Muggle game he's been tinkering with".

That got the man's attention and before long I had the game out and we were trying it out. Already I was pretty sure that the game would be approved off, which meant I'd be able to copy and sell it in the future.

"So how does this work" I was asked.

There was no mention of seeing him during office hours, if anything Mr Weasley seemed thrilled that I'd come to see him person. Clearly he was much more friendly than his youngest son.

"The game isn't that simple" I said "But its not so hard that kids can't play it".

I showed Mr Weasley the inventory, which showed the contents of the box.

One Monopoly board. Two dice. 6 game tokens. 32 houses and 12 castles. 16 Ministry cards and 16 Spell and Potion cards. A title deed card for each property

"I changed a few things from the Muggle version, and kept some things" I explained "Muggles use hotels, but my version uses castles, which is important later".

Before long I had a plate of biscuits and a glass of milk in front of me. Mrs Weasley clearly was interested in what was going on, yet for some reason rather than sit down and listen she busied herself in the kitchen while I talked business with her husband.

"The object of Monopoly is become the wealthiest player in the game, by buying, selling, trading and collecting rent on properties" I started by explaining "Depending on how long you want to play, you can either keep going until all but one player has gone bankrupt or set a time limit and make the richest player the winner".

Wizards weren't big believers in time limits. I suspected that it had to do with them living for well over a century, some magic users lived for hundreds of years, so they saw no need for time limits as they had long lives to fill.

"To start the game, each player chooses a token which acts as player piece" I told Ron's Dad.

I'd created new tokens, which were, the sorting hat, the unicorn, the broomstick, which, the potion bottle, the phoenix, in honour of Sol, and the owl. All of those tokens suited the magical world much better than the tokens used in the classic Muggle version of this game. Plus they all moved by themselves.

"One player is selected as the goblin, as he or she is a banker" I was now saying "The banker distributes a starting amount of money".

Granger had worked out to represent such large sums of money without using too many coins. The wizarding world made use of bank drafts of a sort, kind of like cheques, in order to make large purchases without having to carry sacks of gold around.

"On the board we have four corner squares. GO is where play begins. Every time you land on or pass GO, you collect 200 Galleons" I informed Mr Weasley "The Ministry and Potion & Spells squares you see on the board require players to draw a card, which can be good or bad".

Some of the Potion and Spells cards were amusing. One of the cards made you lose money after falling victim to a love potion and spending a fortune on gifts. While another card led to the player having been hit by a cheering charm and having a positive attitude led to making profit on a deal.

"Free Parking is the only space in the game that requires you to do absolutely nothing" I said next "The "Go to Azkaban" square only results in jail time if you land on it, not if you pass it. The Azkaban square has two sections: "Just Visiting" is if you roll and land on Azkaban; and "In Azkaban" is when you get sent to jail".

I spent a little time explaining about the squares which contained properties to buy, and the services, as well as how buying these things made money. I'd changed all the squares so that they were relevant for wizards.

The services hadn't been to hard to figure out, stuff like the Floo Network, Platform 9 and 2 quarters, and the Knight Bus, replaced the traditional train stations, however finding enough properties turned out to be much harder work as they had to be group together. I'd ended up putting together Hogwarts with Hogsmede and the Forbidden Forest as the most expensive of properties to buy. Some of the businesses in Knockturn alley made up the cheapest.

"When you actually start the game the highest roll of the dice goes first" were the next words to come out of my mouth "You start in the GO square, like I already mentioned, and move clockwise around the board according to the number on the dice".

So far he seemed to be understanding everything. Which was good as if the wizards and witches of this world couldn't grasp the game then they'd never play it and all my efforts, as well as those of a certain young witch, would have been for nought.

"If you land on an available property, you can buy it by paying the goblin the price listed on the deed card" I explained next "If you buy all of the properties in the same colour group, then you have a monopoly, allowing you to charge double the listed rent. Once you have a monopoly, you can start to build houses and eventually a castle, raising the rent further. Of course, you have to pay rent whenever you land on an opponent's property".

There was more to say

"If you land on an available property, but decline to buy it, then the banker can auction the property to the highest bidder" I told the man from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office "The banker starts the bidding at any price and all players can participate, including the banker and the player who originally declined the property".

Hopefully that wouldn't be too hard to remember.

"You can get sent to Azkaban three ways, by landing on the square marked "Go to Azkban" by picking a "Go to Azkaban" card or by throwing three doubles in a row. You can also get out of jail three ways: using the "Get out of Azkaban Free" card, by rolling doubles within three turns, or you can your bribe your way out. If you don't roll doubles after three turns, you have to pay to get out of jail".

I was nearly done.

"Players can also loan each other money, or sell properties they own without the bank getting involved" I said "The goblin banker acts as judge if any arguments break out".

It was a good thing that milk had been provided as my mouth was going dry.

"A player goes bankrupt when he or she doesn't have enough cash or assets to pay the bank or another player" I explained "Players can sell houses and hotels back to the bank for half of their original value, but if that doesn't provide enough cash, the bankrupt player forfeits all properties to the bank or an opponent and is out of the game".

I'd written down the rules, and how this version differed from the Muggle ones, the changes were mostly cosmetic.

"Well I can get my boss to approve this game" Mr Weasley told me "But it will require some testing, so we'll need to play the game".

Hopefully it wouldn't take too long. I still wanted to visit Luna. At this rate I might have to come back tomorrow.

(Line Break)

**Ottery St Catchpole. England.**

It took me hours to escape the Burrow, I'd had to play my version of Monoploy while answering a large number of question, not all of which had anything to do with the game, mostly they were about Muggles. A subject I had a fair bit of knowledge on.

Then came dinner, which had involved even more questions from Ginny, all about Hogwarts, Harry Potter and other school stuff. All of which her brothers should and could have answered, however they chose not to.

Finally I'd been able to leave and begin making my way to the Lovegood residence. When I saw the Lovegood House which was a black-coloured cylindrical house on top of a hill with a stream at the base of it, I forgot all about the odd appearance of the Burrow as this home was way cooler.

It really looked like a rook, and I quickly saw that the front yard could be entered by a broken down gate, which Xenophilius had tacked a sign to which said "Editor of the Quibbler" it needed replacing.

From here I could see that the front door was thick and black, studded with iron nails, with a knocker shaped like an eagle. It was so Ravenclaw, and while I'd not checked what house Luna's parents were in I was sure that they had been in Ravenclaw just as I was now. Just as Luna would be.

Despite the chill in the air, which could now be felt much more keenly as the sun began to reach the horizon, I found Luna Lovegood, who was totally adorable, in the garden, talking to herself as she poked some plants with a stick.

"Looking for Snorkacks?" I asked.

The Crumple-Horned Snorkack was an elusive, or possibly just imaginary, magical creature. I didn't simply assume that it wasn't real just because there was no concrete proof of its existence. After all Muggle scientists found new species all the time, and the magical ones could find ways to hide more effectively than the non-magical animals.

"No they live in Sweden" the young witch replied as she studied the garden with interest "I'm looking for Nargals".

This made sense to me.

"They're known to infest mistletoe" I said.

I did read the Quibbler, well I skimmed the articles, most of which were silly, but the runic word search could be fun. However while most of the stuff in that magazine made little sense I had found something odd.

Heliopaths, which were also made up, happened to resemble flame atronachs, or at least a drawings of them did. Now this could just be a coincidence, but like Buffy Summers there were two things I didn't believe in: coincidence and leprechauns.

Although leprechauns did exist in this world, so it could be a coincidence, and there had been no other sightings of daedra as far as I knew, no Seer dreams from Morgana or Force Visions for me.

Still it was best to investigate even if if the hand drawn picture shown in the last issue of the Quibbler was just of a flaming humanoid. It might just be a child's nightmare, or even a person who'd been set on fire with some sort of spell, and had hopefully used the flame freezing charm.

"I'd like to speak with your father if I may" I told the young witch.

Apparently stranger danger wasn't something magical folk worried about as Luna led me right into her house. Sure I looked like an innocent young boy, but given that stuff like polyjuice potion existed she should be more careful.

The front door lead into the kitchen, which was a perfectly circular room, with stove, sinks, and cupboards all curved in order to fit the walls. Everything in the kitchen had been painted in bright colours and many things were decorated with pictures of flowers, insects, and birds. Clearly this was house for hippies.

In the centre of the floor was a spiral wrought-iron staircase that I assumed lead up to the upper levels. Which Luna soon led me up. The first floor above the kitchen was a lot more more cluttered, and also entirely round, as far as I could tell this room served as both a living room and a workplace for Xenophilius Lovegood.

There were piles of books and papers covering every surface. The ceiling was dotted with small delicately made models of creatures that could flap their wings, or snap their jaws. They actually moved around up there, some of them looked as they'd eat each other if they could reach that far.

The strange device that took up a lot of space up here had to Xenophilius Lovegood's printing press, which printed out copies of his magazine _The Quibbler_, which of course I recognised on site.

"Daddy!" Luna called out.

A man appeared from under a pile of papers. He looked as if been sleeping in them. Maybe he was a Hufflepuff and had been hibernating like the badger that served their house as a symbol. Did badger's hibernate? Not relevant right now.

"Yes, Pumpkin!" he shouted out.

His daughter was right here in front of him, and yet he still felt the need to yell.

"I'll make some tea" the witch said "You can talk to Daddy. Just don't get to close, he has a terrible case of Wrackspurts".

A Wrackspurt was an invisible creature which floated into a person's ears, making their brain become unfocused and confused. Wrackspurts could be seen with aid of Spectrespecs, but I'd not tested this out. Those suffering from Wrackspurt infections could dispel them by thinking positive thoughts.

While Luna busied herself in the kitchen below I made some small talk with Mr Lovegood, who clearly needed to take better care of himself. I wasn't upset about his poor parenting and odd sleeping habits, as he must still be in mourning for his wife, but those things did concern me.

I'd have to keep a close eye on his daughter, which I would have anyway since I knew she would be bullied and I loathed bullies more than anything, be they school ones, or space vampires who liked to prey on pre-industrial humans.

"Mr Lovegood" I started by saying "I have some questions about an article you recently printed".

The man seemed somewhat alert. Which was good.

"Where did you get the image of a Heliopaths?" I asked "The one you printed in your magazine".

Mr Lovegood muttered to himself as he sorted out some papers.

"Ah yes, here we are" he said after a while "My Luna drew it, she has strange dreams, ever since...".

He trailed off and went back to lying on his papers, leaving me holding the original drawing which could be a daedra or the product of a child's nightmare. As for Mr Lovegood I decided to leave him to it, and headed down the stairs.

I knew what I needed to know. Luna had dreamt the creature, which meant that it was either a product of her damaged mind, which must be messed up after seeing her mother die, or she'd dreamed about the future.

Morgana's Seer powers didn't manifest until after her stepfather died and she went to live in Camelot. Which meant that tragedy could be a trigger for Seer abilities, or she could just be loony. At this point I simply didn't know.

"Your father is taking a nap" I told the younger Lovegood.

Since she'd made the tea I decided to drink it, the flavour was exotic to put it nicely. As I drank the little witch made some small talk, and asked a few questions, I would have happily answered all her queries, alas it was getting dark and I needed to get home or my Au Pair would be upset.

"Listen Luna" I said while taking off my adder stone "Do me a favour and wear this, I don't think I need it any more, you do".

My adder stone did more than shield me from nightmares, and while removing it did lessen by defences I was immortal, also I had other ways of protecting myself. Heck I might be able to make a new one as the ritual was recorded in my magicron, a magical version of Jedi Holocron.

Giving the gift was not a totally selfish act as if she was simply having nightmares the adder stone would stop them, however if she was really seeing the future then the adder stone wouldn't block out the stronger visions and once I had her trust she would confide in me, letting me know if she was a real Seer, or just a bit crazy.

While she tried on the the adder stone, which was worn as amulet around the neck, I wrote down the address of my home and my name, the one I was known as in this world.

"I've got to go back to school soon, so send me an owl over the summer, and I can come visit" I told her "We can go to Diagon Alley when its time to get your school things".

While I did want to know when and how her mother had died, because I was morbidly curious, this wasn't the time to pry.

"Oh are we friends?" Luna asked "Ginny is my friend too".

Well it wasn't normal to actually enquire if you were friends with someone, as you were suppose to simply known, I decided to form the friendship now. If she was a Seer then I wanted her on my side because real Seers were few and far between as well as priceless since their ability to glimpse the future was a very useful tool.

"Yes, Luna we're friends" I said "Now I'll be at home for the rest of the holidays so you can call me on the floo if you need anything".

On the way I couldn't help noticing that the young witch had silver eyes, not greyish-silver, they were really silver, it was an interesting feature. I figured that she'd be quite the beauty when she grew up.

As I moved the garden, intending to summon the Knight Bus once I returned the road, I consider that even if she wasn't a Seer she be a worthy recruit anyway. I'd had my eye on a certain bushy haired witch for a while, however I found Granger to be annoying at times and very set in her ways.

Granted she might grow out of that, but Luna could be easier to groom into a companion, I could guide her and help her avoid becoming Loony. It was something to think about, and I was sure that today I had planted the seeds of what could be a good friendship.

(Line Break)

**Diagon Alley. Wizarding World. **

This time when I visited the shopping district of Magical Britain it was much quieter and far less packed than before. Which was to be expected since Wizards didn't celebrate Easter as such they kept working, and far more of the children at Hogwarts stayed at the school than they did over the Christmas holidays.

I was pleased by this as it allowed me to do some shopping without feeling rushed. Plus I got spend more of my father's money, and that suited us both fine as he just kept sending me more of it as I spent it.

Adele did make some protests when I tried to buy a Pensieve, however I just tuned her out as I really wanted one of the magical devices.

The Pensieve was an object used to review memories. It had the appearance of a shallow stone or metal basin, into which runes and strange symbols were carved and precious stones were fitted, which was all for decoration I felt sure.

When in use the Pensieve is filled with a silvery substance that appears to be a cloud-like liquid/gas. These were in fact the collected memories of people who have siphoned their recollections into it.

Memories could then be viewed from a non-participant, third-person point of view. Owing to the highly personal nature of extracted memories, and the potential for abuse, most Pensieves are entombed with their owners along with the memories they contain.

Some witches and wizards will pass on their Pensive/memories to another person, as is the case with the Hogwarts Pensieve, which according to Hogwarts A History gets passed down from Headteacher to Headteacher.

While I had a good memory it wasn't flawless, and there really was too much crap in my head. Sure it was possible for me to view memories as holograms, a Pensives allowed one to be a ghost while in the memory. Which I figured could come in handy.

Perhaps I could do something like that with downloaded memories and a holodeck, however using Pensive would be much simpler.

I'd already looked in Cranville Quincey's Magical Junkshop hoping to find a second hand Pensieve, but I hadn't been too optimistic about that, and I'd been right not to be.

As it turned out you could place yourself on a waiting list for certain objects. For my pensive I would have to wait two years, and sure that sounded like a long time, until you recalled that wizards can live for well over a century, and I didn't really need the Pensieve right now so I was willing to wait.

I was able to make the order by visiting Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment which was a shop in North Side, Diagon Alley that sold a wide variety of magical instruments like telescopes and hourglasses, as well maps.

"Will I need all of this for Hogwarts" Luna Lovegood asked me.

The young witch had taken me up on the offer to spend time together before I went back to school, and since I'd needed to come to alley anyway I'd decided to bring her with me. This had been much to the delight of Adele, who teased me about having a girlfriend.

As for Luna there were already signs of improvement with her, no doubt thanks to the adder stone that I'd given her, which prevented nightmares. A few nights of peaceful sleep could do a person a world of good.

It was also suppose to protect against snakebites, and since basilisks are giant snakes the adder stone might protect against the venom of the basilisk, however it might not even how dangerous the venom happened to be, and this wasn't something you wanted to test in case it didn't work.

"Some of it" I said "You'll get a list of supplies with your acceptance letter, I can help you with that".

This store sold Armillary spheres, one of which I'd brought it since it looked cool, binoculars, brass scales, brass telescopes, compasses, crystal balls, glass phials, crystal phials, magnifying glasses, charts of the Moon, star charts, globes of the Moon, and what looked to be galaxies in orbs, which I was told would serve me well in astronomy lessons. However I had no desire to learn more than I had to in that subject, in fact since I could remove memories I'd delete the entire subject once I finished the OWL exam.

"I just need to pick some treats for Sol, and the some stuff for potions" I said to Luna as we left the store "After that we can visit Rose Lee Teabag for afternoon tea".

My study group needed some potion supplies as Serana would want to take us through the creation of the boil removal potion as that was bound to term up on the end of year exam.

Once that was done we could head for some refreshments. Aside from tea I would order cakes. I remembered from the books/films that Luna was a dessert person, and the skinny girl could do with some feeding.

"Who is Sol?" Miss Lovegood asked.

I realised then that she'd never met my familiar. While he came when called he was often off somewhere doing his own thing, and I'd not seen him for a few days.

"Sol" I called out.

The Phoenix appeared in a burst of blame which startled a few passersby.

"This is Sol" I explained "He's my Phoenix familiar".

He was also a total babe magnet, no human female I'd seen him go near had been able to resist the urge to pet and fuss over him, the fire bird loved the attention. Oddly few others seemed to care once the novelty wore off, despite the famous Dumbledore also having a Phoenix familiar.

I couldn't understand why this was the case, so I just assumed Jump Chan was behind it, and I guessed that it might have something to do with how most people simply accepted the backstory of a Jumper who didn't select Drop In.

Sol began to sing for Luna. The Phoenix Lament was a form of song expressed by Phoenixes. Its tunes were known to touch the soul, in positive or negative ways. Its most powerful performances were known to be present when the Phoenix suffers emotional instability, such as the death of its master.

Since I was fine the song wasn't as potent, but I could tell that it touched Luna, who would of course be feeling rather sad about her mother. The music would be touching her soul, helping her in ways I never could.

Luna actually smiled once the song was done, and of course reached to pet the avian, who decided to remain perched on my shoulder until the petting was done, then he took off and flamed away, leaving a sole feather behind, one too large for a wand, but the right size for a quill.

"He wants you to have this" I said to the young witch "They make the best quills".

Apparently hugging was a thing that Luna Lovegood did to people was I discovered next. Not that I minded.


	14. Chapter 14

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 14**

**Hogwarts. Magical World.**

Not long after I got back from school I met with Mr Potter in the abandoned classroom that had been the temporary home of the Desire Mirror. Once again I had taken my adult form, put on my mask, and had met the boy in the dead of night.

The young wizard seemed to be behind schedule, he should already know all about the stone and that it was hidden on the 3rd floor of the castle. Lucky for him I could help fill in the blanks.

"Do you have the item I requested?" I asked.

During this meeting the lad seemed more confident, which might have something to do with having the chance to spend time with his godfather.

"Yes" he told me.

The boy dangled the locket, which I could sense was the right one, in front of me.

"And you won't get it until..."

Before he could try to alter the deal I reached out with my powers and brought the locket into my waiting hand. Which he was very shocked by, you'd think he'd never seen anything supernatural before today.

"Now Mr Potter I believe that you had questions" I was now saying "Ask and I shall answer them".

To my complete lack of surprise he wanted to know about the stone, and who was after it, which he didn't accept, however that hardly mattered as in a matter of weeks he'd have proof.

As for me I would soon be able to destroy another Horcrux, once the locket was gone, all that would be left was the cup, the diary and Potter himself since the snake was not yet a Horcrux.

The cup I could get anytime, in theory, since Sol should be able to flame me right into the bank once, and once I found out which vault belonged to the Lestrange's I'd have to devise a way to back in. Which wasn't impossible for some one just using wand magic, and I had more options than the locals.

I could even go back to one of my older plans and have Dumbledore deal with the object, he had so many titles so he might be able to get something removed from a vault in a legal way.

Not that it mattered to me right now as I needed to destroy the diary before worrying about the cup or the scar on Potter's forehead. Which I still wasn't sure how I would handle, if I even bothered.

If there was a demonic invasion then Voldemort would be the least of my concerns. But since the Horcruxs themselves could be dangerous, it was best to be rid of them. Besides it wasn't as if destroying the Horcruxs was taking a lot of effort by me.

"Good night, Mr Potter" I said once the boy's questions had been answered "We will met again".

I slipped away into the night, intending to focus on my school work for a while once the locket was dealt with.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Magical World.**

I wasn't entirely sure how I'd gotten mixed up with Potter's trip to see Hagrid, it had something to do with Granger and I hanging out in the library together, but rather than ignore them and get on with my studying, for some reason I'd decided to tag along.

Which made me wonder if fate was messing with me, or someone else. Was Fate a real and active force in this universe? If so it would explain a few things.

We got up to the large door, and while the others whispered among themselves, I wrapped my knuckles against the hard wood. Only a few moments later Hagrid opened his front door.

"I'm sorry, I'm in no mood to entertain today," he said.

The hybrid was about to shut the door in our faces, but he stopped when he heard us peak.

"We know about the Philosopher's Stone!" we all exclaimed.

The door opened up again.

"Oh," he said with a sigh "You better come in then".

Everyone other than myself took a seat. I'd never been here before so I didn't wish to be rude by making myself at home.

"We think Quirrell is trying to steal it," Harry Potter told the Groundskeeper.

Well it wasn't really them thinking since I'd given them most of the answers to their questions.

"Quirrel?" Hagrid said with laughed. "As if he'd have the nerve to steal anything?".

I had to admit that our Defence teacher did play his role well. If you didn't know better you could really think that he was nothing more than a bumbling fool.

"We know he's after it," Harry Potter exclaimed. "and we know why".

I'd told the young hero about how the Dark Lord was the one who was really after the stone, but I'd not mentioned how Riddle lived on the back of Quirrell's head. That was the kind of thing you had to see in order to accept it. Besides there was no reason to ruin all the surprises.

"Come on now, Quirrell is one of the teachers protecting the stone," Hagrid said. "He's not about to steal it".

I guess that someone had to have put the troll there as one of the defences. Perhaps Quirrell had some ability to control them.

"Do you really trust Professor Quirrell, Mr Hagrid?" I asked him. "As he ever done anything to make you doubt him. Do you know for a fact that he doesn't want to steal it?".

He didn't answer right away.

"Dumbledore trusts all the teachers here at Hogwarts, and I trust Dumbledore," he said. "So, yes, I trust him. Now if you don't mind, I'm a bit preoccupied".

Alas trusting the Headmaster wasn't always the wisest course of action.

"Wait a minute," Hermione was now saying. "There's other things protecting the stone aren't there? Like spells and enchantments?".

Well at least they were figuring things out and working together.

"That there are, Hermione," Hagrid told us as he shook his head. "I don't know why though. Nothing is going to get passed Fluffy. Ain't a soul knows how, only me and Dumbledore. I shouldn't have told you that. Why do I keep telling you that?".

Because he was a big blabber mouth, and because the Headmaster wanted Potter to learn these things in order to test his character or something along those lines. Bloody stupid in my opinion as Potter was 11 years old and could grow into a very different person than he was right now.

Before any more questions could be asked Hagrid went over to the fire, reached into the kettle and pulled out a large, shiny egg.

"Hagrid what is that?" Harry asked him.

"That is, um, that there is a…"

It was a gold coloured egg, those popped up a few times in the books, we'd had an Easter Egg hunt with a golden egg as a grand prize, that was interesting to think about, but I didn't understand what it meant.

"I know what that is," Ron said with a gasp. "But, Hagrid, how did you get it?".

The answer was: illegally.

"I won it down at the pub from a stranger," he explained. "Seemed happy to get rid of it to tell you the truth".

Slowly, but surely, the shell of the egg began to crack. Piece by piece, and before long a tiny, winged creature was there before us on the table.

"Hagrid, is that a baby dragon?" Granger asked in bewilderment. "You actually have a dragon in your house".

A dragon living in a wooden hutt, I could see that not ending well.

"Oh look at him," Hagrid gushed, while ignoring the question completely. "He knows his mummy. Hello, Norbert".

Didn't it turn out to be girl? I was sure of that.

"Norbert?" Harry questioned.

"He needs a name doesn't he?" the big man replied.

Hagrid scratched the dragon under the head. Which, in return, made Norbert cough up some fire right into Hagrid's beard. Which thankfully he was able to put out.

"He will need to be trained up a little of course".

"She" I corrected "Its a girl".

Everyone looked at me.

"Trust me on this" I said to the group "That's a girl dragon".

No one questioned me on the matter, it wasn't as if they'd know what to look for even if they could check, nor did anyone seem to want to try.

"Do you actually think that Dumbledore will let you keep a dragon in your possession?" I asked. "She will grow up you know. What will you do then? Chain her in the forest to make sure she wouldn't just fly away?".

He did it to his own brother in one of the books, so I wouldn't put it past the guy.

"That wouldn't be for a while though, Damien" said the half human.

I was about to enquire as to how he knew that name, but of course Malfoy ruined things.

"Who's that?" Hagrid wondered.

There was no mistaking him, the boy's hair reflected the moonlight.

"Malfoy," Potter said.

"That's not good," Hagrid said. "That's not good at all. You three need to head back to the castle at once".

I could tell that the gentle demi-giant was upset.

"Everything is going to be fine Hagrid," I told him. "It's all going to work out."

Soon we were outside and heading to the castle. I was about to make my own way, since I had a certain map that would let me avoid trouble, but I couldn't slip away.

"Let's get to the castle," Harry said as he pulled me along. "Maybe we can get back to the common rooms before we get caught".

At this point I realised that I was part of these events and should just start going with the flow.

"I highly doubt it," I said. "Malfoy probably already got a teacher".

"Just, let's think positive," Hermione said. "Maybe if we don't make a sound…"

It was too late.

"Good evening you four," Professor McGonagall said as came up to us.

Malfoy appeared behind her with a smug look on his face. I was tempted to see if I could make him vomit as well as wet himself in public, but that wouldn't really help here. I'd get my revenge later.

"Nothing, and I repeat, nothing is important enough for anyone to leave the castle this late at night," McGonagall stated "Therefore, 50 points will be taken from your houses".

"50!" the Golden Trio shouted.

Like it mattered. House points were worthless. Besides they'd win anyway. They were Dumbledore's favourites.

"Each," she added. "And to make sure that is doesn't happen again; all five of you will be serving detention".

That soured Draco's mood very quickly.

"Excuse me, Professor," Malfoy said. "I believe I heard you wrong. I believe you said all five of us".

I had to smile.

"As honourable as your intentions were, Mr. Malfoy, you were also out of your common room after curfew. "So, you too will be going to detention. Now, all of you go to bed this instant".

What struck me as odd was that we weren't even out that late. I'd been in the library not that long ago. Where had the time gone?

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Magical World.**

"You'll be serving your detention with Hagrid tonight," Filtch explained while leading us out into the dark, chilly courtyard. "He's got a job for you all to do inside the Dark Forest".

AKA The Forbidden Forest.

"Here they are, Hagrid," said the mean old caretaker as we walked over to the groundskeeper. "You're still not on about that bloody dragon are you?".

It appeared so.

"Norbert's gone" Hagrid let us know "Dumbledore sent him off to Romania to be with the other dragons".

I wonder if Ron's older brother Charlie was involved or not, he did so in the books. The Weasel boy was here, but he didn't say anything on the matter. In fact he wasn't speaking all, he was a cowardly lion by the looks of things.

"That will be good from him then, Hagrid," Hermione said. "He'll be with his own kind."

The demi-human wasn't so easily soothed.

"But what if he don't like it there? What if the other dragons are mean to him?" Hagrid asked us.

I saw that he was holding a crossbow to his chest. I hoped he knew how to use that thing as I wasn't protected by a kinetic barrier while at this school.

"He's a dragon, Hagrid, I think he'll be fine," I told him.

Even in the dark I saw Filtch rolled his eyes.

"Pull yourself together, man!" the grumpy sod said. "You're going into the forest after all".

Yeah this had to be some attempt by Dumbledore to test Potter given what was in those woods, or he might even be trying to kill the young Wizard, for the Greater Good, as the Tau would say.

Not that it mattered to me much. I had a wide range of powers I could use to protect myself. A Phoenix, and a pouch of holding full of useful stuff so I would be okay.

"The forest?" Malfoy asked. "I thought that was a joke. You can't expect me to go in there. There's monsters in there, like werewolves".

Not that he need be concerned as it wasn't a full moon.

"Oh, there's more than werewolves in there, lad. You can be sure of that," Filtch said as he walked off towards the castle. "Nighty night!".

I was amused.

"Odd how they punish us with the same activity we got in trouble for isn't it" I commented "We were out of castle after curfew, and so we're getting sent out of the castle after curfew".

My words were ignored. Everyone was too focused on the prospect of entering the scary woods.

"Right then," Hagrid said "Let's go."

All six of us wandered further and further into the forest. When we stopped Hagrid, dropped the lantern onto the ground, and stuck his fingers in some silvery liquid. I was tempted to collect some of the blood, but it had already started soaking into the ground and that would contaminate any sample I took.

"What is that, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

"This is what we're here for," he said. "This is unicorn blood. I found a dead one a few weeks ago, and another one of them is hurt. Badly I'd imagine. So, we have to split up and try to find it".

I rolled my eyes.

"Split up?" I asked. "That's like the first rule of what not to do in a horror movie situation, Hagrid".

Fools the lot of them.

"That's only in the movies," Hermione said with a shake her head "As long as we keep a clear head on our shoulders we'll be fine".

Since I would live through this, as not many things could kill me. I was going to gloat over how wrong she was for years to come.

"What a horror movie?" the two pureblood wizards asked.

No one answered them.

"We have to find the poor beast," Hagrid stated "Ron, you come with me. Hermione go over there with Harry. Damien you and Malfoy go that way".

That was a stupid way to divide our forces.

"You can't leave me with him!" Draco protested.

Hagrid cared not for the complaining.

"The sooner we do this, the quicker you all get to go back to the castle" he pointed out.

"Fine," Malfoy said with a sneer. "But I have to go with Pendragon then I want Fang to go with us".

Ironically the twit was safer with me than anyone else here.

"Fine, but just so you know, Fang's a bloody coward," Hagrid said.

We didn't get far before the Hitler Youth member started to complain, or should that be, Death Eater Youth member.

"I can't believe that giant oaf made me come with you," Malfoy whined. "Wait until my father hears about this".

While taking out my wand and lighting it up I also gritted my teeth. It was tempting to Force Choke the inbreed fucker, but I didn't harm children, well not physically. Public humiliation was only emotionally scarring.

"Will you shut up?" I asked. "All I hear from you back there is complaining. You're suppose to be scion of an ancient and noble house, start acting like it".

That actually shut him up. Hopefully for a while.

(Line Break)

**The Forbidden Forest. The Wizarding World.**

Some distance away from the others Hermione and Harry were doing the best to look for a wounded unicorn.

"What?" Harry asked as he stared into the distance. "What do you see?".

Granger having the better eye sight out of the two of them had spotted the wounded magical animal.

"Is that the unicorn?" Hermione asked "It sure looks like it".

She then turned to her fellow first year.

"Harry, are you alright?" she asked.

Potter now looked to be in pain.

"My scar is burning," he said as rubbed his forehead. "It hasn't hurt like this before".

The pain only grew worse as a cloaked creature, or maybe it was a man, glided over the body of the dying unicorn and was now heading straight towards Harry and Hermione and the two first years ran for their little lives.

They would have died had someone else not interfered. When Hermione opened her eyes she saw that a centaur, had driven the scary thing away. Which she found odd as she knew that centaurs weren't very friendly towards humans.

"Harry Potter," the centaur said "What an honour it is to meet you, but you must leave this place. The forest is not safe for you".

That was obvious.

"What was that thing you just scared off?" the Boy-Who-Lived wondered.

He had a feeling that he already knew.

"A monstrous creature," the centaur said. "It is an awful crime to slay a unicorn and feast off of its blood. Drinking the blood will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price".

That sounded terrible for everyone involved.

"Who would do such a thing?" Hermione asked.

"Could you think of no one who would want such a cursed life by killing a pure creature?" the centaur said.

Hermione found that this was a question she didn't want to answer.

"Wait, are you saying that that thing that was right in front of us. The thing that killed the unicorn and was drinking the blood. That was Voldemort?" Harry asked.

No confirmation was given, it wasn't required.

"Do you know what is hiding at Hogwarts, that he wants?" the Centaur asked.

Indeed they did.

"The Philosopher's Stone," Harry said.

A few moments later Potter and Granger were joined by others.

"Evening Firenze," Hagrid said. "I see you have met Harry and Hermione. Are you two alright?",

The two children nodded.

"This is where I leave you then" Firenze told everyone "You're safe now. Good luck".

With that he galloped away.

(Line Break)

**The Forbidden Forest. The Wizarding World.**

"Who would ever want to hurt a wonderful creature like you you?" I asked of myself.

Both Fang and Malfoy had run away screaming from a centaur, which in turn had ignored us, and I had switched to my adult form so that I could get a better sense for my environment. Using the Force and my mystical senses was so much easier as an adult.

Following my feelings I'd found the dying unicorn, and now I was tending to it. I was tempted to take some blood, but doing that just didn't feel right. So I squashed the urge and focused on helping.

First of all I tried healing with my near-ascended powers, when that didn't help I called upon my limited skills with restoration magic, which healed the unicorn, although doing this took quite a bit of effort from me.

As the amazing creature return to its feet, the beast shook its mane which caused some of its hairs to fall to the ground, before it trotted off. I got the sense that I was suppose to take the hairs.

Which I did and when I stood up I found that there were a few centaurs looking at me. They were not friendly towards humans, and while I barely counted as one they would see me as a human.

"You have healed the unicorn" one of them said.

I prepared for a fight as they had bows drawn and could very quickly fire them. However rather than do battle the magical creatures left me alone, galloping off into the night.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

"You mean You-Know-Who is out there in the forest right now?" Ron asked

The three first years were now back in the common room.

"Yes, but he's weak," Harry answered. "He's feeding off of the unicorns. Don't you see, we have it all wrong. Quirrel? doesn't want the stone for himself. He wants it for Voldemort. If he gets his hands on the Elixir of Life, Voldemort will get strong again and then he'll come back".

This was not good news.

"You don't think that if he'll come back, he'll try to kill you do you?" Ron wondered.

Potter sat down, but he was restless enough to know that he wouldn't be remaining still for long.

"I bet he would have if Firenze didn't stop him tonight," Potter said while getting to his feet.

His best friend was too tired to worry.

"Tonight was fun and all, but I am beat, so I am going to bed" he declared "Good night".

"Night" Potter and Granger said.

Ron turned back to the others to say.

"And to think, I was freaking out about my potions final" he told them.

With that he disappeared up the stairs.

"Hang on a minute," Hermione said. "You're missing one key thing here. Who is the one wizard that Voldemort feared? Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore is around you can't be touched".

Alas Potter was not as comforted by this as he might have been.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

It had taken some effort, and some liberal use of the skeleton key as well as the Marauder's Map but I finally broken into the deputy headmistress's office. The map let me know that I had not triggered any alarms that would bring the head of the lion house charging into her office.

Security here at this school had much room for improvement, it was as if they wanted the students to be able to sneak around at night. Okay so Dumbledore did want Potter to be able to move about somewhat freely, but it should be harder than this to break into the confidential files.

This cabinet held the files of all the students in the school. I knew this because I'd been in this office, having been questioned about what I saw in the forest by the deputy headmistress who'd added some information to my file.

During the questioning I'd mentioned the centaurs and seeing the wounded unicorn, and I'd gone into a little detail about Malfoy's cowardice, which had made the head of the lion house smile just a little.

I'd decided to check out the cabinet as I had suspicions about some students' real performance in class for a while and now I needed confirmation, but mostly I was here to see my file, just in case the staff here had noted anything odd. If they had I would have to try to correct the behaviour that was drawing attention to me.

First things first, my own file. I found it quickly and read over the comments that the teachers had written in reports. Overall it was the report of a student that the teachers thought could do a bit better if he would only apply himself properly in class, do a bit more research for his homework, and prepare properly for classes.

However my head of house had only praise for me, I was well ahead of my peers in charms, and Flitwick had written that he suspected me of purposely doing less than my best so as not to be labelled a know it all show off.

Overall there was nothing in my file that can concerned me. I should be okay as long as I didn't go showing off. If Dumbledore suspected anything then he was keeping it close to his chest, but I suspected that given how many important positions he'd held and his focus on the Chosen One, that he didn't even know that I existed.

The next report I looked for was that of Ron Weasley. There were lots of reports about sub-par homework being handed in, slacking in class, disrespect towards other students, as well comments how they feared that he would fail the end-of-year exams.

None of this surprised me at all as in this time line the Weasel boy didn't have Granger helping him out as she did all her homework with me in the library. Without Hermione to help him he might actually end up failing so badly that they kicked him out, or made him repeat the year. Maybe I should help him not do his best.

The next file I looked up was Hermione's, and what I found in there was not what I had expected. Hermione's grades were worse than my own for the most part. Even with me not giving it all I had in class or when doing on homework, I was beating her in all classes except History of Magic, which I was somehow doing reasonable well in despite not attending classes, and Astronomy.

While she had above average grades, she was falling behind some of the Ravenclaws because she was just repeating what she read in the books, and that meant that she might not really understand what she was saying, or at least the teachers were concerned about this.

Now this was interesting. Granger wasn't as good at school as she wanted others to believe. What I found less interesting was that Morgana was doing well in transfiguration, as well as other classes, much to McGonagall's pleasure and that Serana was head of the year when it came to potions, while also doing well in other subjects.

Since I'd seen what I wanted to see I knew that it was time to leave. I didn't want to get caught sneaking around after dark, the last thing I needed was another detention.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

"You're up late, Minerva," she heard Professor Flitwick's say.

The deputy headmistress was sitting her office, and since she'd left her door open, and her follow head of house was patrolling the castle this night, it was no surprise that he'd popped into talk with her.

"Just the last preparations for the end-of-year exams. If I don't get things done now, it will result in chaos later on" the senior staff member explained "Not to mention the OWL and NEWT exams that have to be scheduled".

She stopped writing for a moment.

"Is there something you actually wanted or is this just a social call?" the busy teacher asked.

She knew the half-goblin well enough to know that he wanted something.

"Ah, I just wanted to get copies of the ranking lists for all years before the exams start, like every year. I know where you keep them and thought I didn't need to bother you when you already have so much to do," Flitwick explained.

No surprises here as he checked them out every year. They were a collection of documents which predicted who would do well in the exams based on the work done while in class and out of it.

"I see. Well, you can take them, they're already done. If the results of the end-of-year exams mirror what we've seen so far, my house won't get many top spots. You will probably get the top first year students yet again" McGonagall said.

Ravenclaw was considered to be the house for the smarty pants for a good reason.

"I thought you would have been confident in Miss Granger?" Flitwick asked a little surprised.

The young lass had been doing very well in his class.

"Please, Filius, the girl only pretends to be as smart as she appears to be" the deputy headmistress stated "She reads a lot and repeats it verbatim. She also prepares well for lessons, so it's normal that her classmates would get the impression of her being a good student, but you and I both know that's more to magic to reading about it, she needs to actually understand what she reads".

Flictwit found that he couldn't disagree.

"Well what about the Pendragon in your house?" the Charms teacher wondered. #

She seemed to be doing well enough in charms.

"Morgana spends too much time gossiping with her friends to make the top spots in more than just transfiguration" the Scottish woman replied "Not that I'm complaining mind you her transfiguration work is excellent".

There was a pause.

"I think your Pendragon will prove to be the top scorer among the first years" the head of the house lion house was now saying "Assuming that he doesn't hold back too much".

Flitwick would need to encourage the lad.

"You know he can non-verbal spell casting" the half-goblin causally mentioned "I catch him not saying the words of the spell sometimes, and he barely bothers with the wand movements".

This did surprise the deputy headmistress of this school.

"He's doing well in my subject, but I didn't think he was that advanced" she said "Has someone been tutoring him?".

Flitwick simply didn't know.

"I suspect so" said the charms teacher "and I think he could be a natural duellist. If he does well in the exams I might just take him under my wing and teach him a few things".

He'd be lucky to have the extra attention as the Ravenclaw head of house was a master duellist.

"Goodnight, Minerva. Don't work too long," Flitwick said.

"Goodnight, Filius. I think about an hour and then I should be done," she answered.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

I looked up at the board and smiled as I saw the end of year exam results. As expected I'd come top of the class in both charms and defence against the dark arts, my two best subjects. I'd done okay in others, but nothing worth writing home about, not that I would write home as I could just tell my Au Pair all about the exams once school had ended.

Potter came close to besting me in defence, which was odd because the teacher of that subject set the end of year exam unless you were doing OWLs or NEWTs so that meant the man under the control of Voldemort had given the Potter such high marks. That was rather amusing.

The Charms exam had consisted in attributing animation to an otherwise inanimate object. Which meant the students such as myself had to make a pineapple dance across Filius Flitwick's desk. Which was pretty easy to do when you had telekinetic powers. I'd just made my wand move around so that it looked as if the pineapple was following its movements.

I'd not done as well in Transfiguration as I would have liked, as I'd had mistreat an animal in order to do the exam. We had to turn a mouse into a snuff box. Extra points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, points were taken off if it still had whiskers.

Snuffboxes were meant to hold tobacco, so it was an odd thing to teach children how to make, and there had to be more practical things we transform, and ways to transform stuff that didn't involve the mistreatment of innocent creatures.

Serana was off course top in potions having brewed up a boil removal potion that I was sure many an older girl at this school could wise they could brew.

Granger had done well enough as she could memories information well enough and repeat it for written exams, which was why she top at History of Magic and Astronomy, which involved lots of charts during the exams, but she wasn't as good at the practical stuff as it might seem in the books and films.

Alas the Weasel Boy, Potter's sidekick had managed to pass, he wasn't even bottom of the class, Crabb and Goyle had that honour, so he would be returning next year. I'd not been able to sabotage him because of how closely we were monitored during the exams.

Which left me wondering if I'd have to take a drastic course of action in order to get rid of the red headed annoyance. Nothing lethal of course, but I did desire him out of the way.

I'd think about that later as the school year was nearly over, and that meant the Voldemort would soon move to take the stone. I had to be ready in case I became involved in that event.


	15. Chapter 15

**Jump Chain Gothic 8 - Harry Potter - First Year**

**Part 15**

**Hogwarts. Wizarding World. **

"You know, I thought that end of the year exams would be awful. However, I found them rather enjoyable. What about you guys?" Hermione asked as we hiked across the yard.

For some reason I seemed to be once again hanging out with the Golden Trio, I hadn't been intending to spending time with them, yet here I was. It had to do with myself being friends with Granger, and to do with her desire to do something about the stone.

If I'd wanted to I could have hung back and done nothing, yet I found myself drawn into this adventure. I wondered if some sort of outside force was at work, or if on some level I simply wanted to get involved in.

There could even be an outside force at work. Dumbledore maybe? Jump Chan? Or perhaps I actually cared about the well-being of this children and just didn't want to admit it to myself?

"I think that you must be the only person in this entire school to say that, Hermione," I responded. "I personally think that there was too much writing involved. I would have preferred some more practical work".

While the charms and transfiguration exam had required wand waving, and the potions exam had also involved actual magic, the History of Magic exam, which I'd bothered to take, and the Astronomy test had involved far too much writing, as had the defence exam, which really should have been more practical. It wasn't as the if the forces of darkness would ever attack us with paperwork. Well the Ministry might.

"Oh, they're not that bad," Hermione said. "Much easier than the exams we have to take when we are fifth years, and then as seventh years. From what I hear from the older student those are just awful".

Well I'd been to college once already so I should be able to cope with education at that level.

"Let me guess, you are going to start studying for them now?" I questioned. "That way you will be able to get perfect scores".

Before the young witch could say anything the weasel boy, who was walking with Potter behind us, spoke to his friend.

"You alright there, Harry?" he asked.

I turned to look at him. The young hero did not look well.

"No, my scar is burning," he told us while rubbing the mark on his forehead.

Voldemort must be active right now. Which made sense as this must be the night that he goes after the stone.

"It's happened before thought, hasn't it?" Granger asked.

At the start of year feast if I remembered correctly.

"Yes, but not like this," he said before suddenly changing the subject "Of course, why didn't I see this before?".

"What are you talking about, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Don't you think that it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants, more in the world, is a dragon egg, and a random stranger just happens to have one? It can't be a coincidence".

Oh so he was finally figuring things out. I was starting to wonder if I'd have to return to my adult form and give him more information. But I didn't have to as Potter led us down to the hutt that the Gameskeeper called home.

"Hello you lot. Finish your exams?" Hagrid asked.

No one had the chance to reply to that question as Potter had something more vital to talk about.

"Hagrid, I need to ask you something very important," Harry said. "The person who gave you the dragon egg, what did he look like?".

"I don't know," he answered casually. "He kept his hood up".

The demi-human really was too trusting. I would not accept anything from someone who kept themselves hidden like that.

"Hagrid, did you talk to the stranger when you were at the pub?" I asked.

There was no harm in guiding things along just a little.

"We did as a matter of fact," he said.

"What did you talk about?" Potter enquired.

Seemed as if we'd moving to safeguard the stone this very night.

"Well, he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after," Hagrid explained. "I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be no problem".

He was worse at naming things than me.

"Did the guys seem interested in Fluffy?" I asked.

I only half listened to this conversation

"Of course he did, how many times to you come across a three-headed dog?" Hagrid went on to say "But I told him, the best way to deal with any creature is to know how to calm him. Like Fluffy, all you have to do is play a bit of music and he falls fast asleep. I shouldn't have told you that".

What a blabber mouth.

"Guys, we have to tell Dumbledore," Ron said. "And fast"

They sprinted towards McGonagall's office as quickly as possible. I walked quickly and got there only a matter of seconds after they did. Mostly this was because I'd broken into her office recently and therefore knew a direct route.

None of us actually knew where the Headmaster's office was, I'd never though to go and find the gargoyle that blocked the entrance. Not that I really had any desire to go and find out I could with my special map, but I saw no reason to.

"I'm sorry, but Professor Dumbledore has received an urgent message from the Ministry and has headed straight for London," the teacher informed us.

Of course he was gone, he was gone a lot I'd noticed via the map. I suspected he was doing this on purpose, giving Voldemort a chance to get to the stone. Which made me wonder, and not for the first time, if the stone was not a test for Potter, but rather a trap for Voldemort. Was the stone fake, nothing more than bait?

"But this is important," Harry loudly informed his head of house "This is about the Philosopher's Stone!".

Now that got her attention.

"How do you know about that?" McGonagall's eyes widened in surprise.

"Someone is going to try and steal it," Granger added.

The teacher didn't focus on that last part like she should have.

"I don't know how exactly you found out about the stone, but I shall let you know that it is very well guarded and I highly doubt that anyone is going to attempt to steal it," she said to us "Now get outside this instant, and do not mention the stone to anyone".

We soon left Professor McGonagall alone.

"That wasn't just anyone that Hagrid ran into at the pub," Potter went on to explain once we were out of McGonagall's ear shot. "It was Professor Quirrell which means he knows how to get passed Fluffy".

"Now what do we do?" Hermione asked.

"We're going down the trapdoor," Harry said. "Tonight".

"Tonight, are you crazy?" Ron asked. "Who knows what sort of creepy things could be under that trap door".

I was reminded yet again of an old British children's show that involved a trap door, and not for the first time. Which made me wonder if my thoughts of that show were important somehow.

"Where's your Gryffindor courage, Ron?" I wondered "This could be fun".

No point going on Jump if you don't have any adventures. I didn't care at all for the stone as I had no use for it, and it was Potter's job to deal with Voldemort, still I might as well tag along.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

"Are you sure about this?" Ron asked once again.

The three of them had met in the common room as planned, once everyone else had gone to bed

"Yes," Harry answered for what was the fifth time.

Suddenly a loud croak bounced across the walls of the room, in the dead of night it was alarmingly loud.

"Trevor, what are you doing?" Potter asked "You shouldn't be down here".

He moved to pick up the toad.

"And neither should the three of you," said a voice.

Neville popped up from behind one of the many chairs in the room.

"You're sneaking out again aren't you?" Longbottom accused.

The Chosen One noted that the young wizard seemed a lot more confident than he normally did.

"This doesn't concern you, Neville," Potter told him.

Both of the boys raised their wands.

"No, I can't let you do that" Longbottom insisted "You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again. I'll fight you if I have to!".

They couldn't afford a duel, it would wake everyone up.

"I'm really sorry about this, Neville," Hermione pulled out a wand from her pocket. "But it's the only way. Petrificus Totalus!".

"Protago!" Neville yelled.

His shield charm stopped the hostile spell, and the three young heroes had no idea what to do next.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

To my surprise there were four young mages under the invisibility cloak. Which wasn't quite big enough to hide all of them so I saw four pairs of legs coming down the corridor. I needed no cloak as in the dead of night the disillusionment charm, which was a form of magical camouflage, was more than enough.

"Hey Nev" I greeted.

In retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised to see the young wizard, of course he had tried to stop his fellow students from breaking the rules, however since I had taught the young wizard to protect himself the others must have somehow convinced him to come along.

Given that the first test was plant based I suspected that Dumbledore may have intended Neville to go with the Golden Trio, now he would do.

"Professor Quirrell has already been here" I told the others "He's charmed a harp so that Fluffy stays asleep".

Quickly I showed them the sleeping three headed dog.

"Somehow we need to move its paw," I pointed out "Think we can do it?".

While I could move it with the power of my mind, but I no desire to expose the existence of my special abilities Slowly but surely, the foot got moved and this exposed the trapdoor underneath. While crouching down beside it, Harry opened the door. It was pitch black down there.

"I'll go down first," Harry Potter said. "Don't come down until I tell you it's safe to follow. If anything goes wrong get out".

There was no time for that as the dog started to wake up, and all we could do was jump right in. As expected we landed on something mushy.

"Lucky this plant thing was here to catch us," the Weasel said.

No sooner had those words left his mouth the plant began to come alive. Wrapping itself around our bodies.

"It's Devil's Snare!" Longbottom called out "You need to stop moving. If you don't, it will only kill you faster, oh it hates bright lights, anyone got a torch".

Since I was relaxed that allowed me to slowly reach for my hand. Then when I had my magic stick in my hand I made use of a spell.

_"Lumos Solis!"_

A large burst of light came from my wand. The Lumos Solis spell roughly translated as light sun, or sunlight. It was a more powerful version of the standard lumos spell, there were a few versions of this spell available for those who bothered to do a little research.

"Good thing Neville pays attention in Herbology," I heard Potter say "Where do we go now?"

There was only way to go, and we went that way. Heading down a corridor and soon entering a new room.

"Do you hear that?" Granger asked.

I could.

"What, Ron's stomach?" Potter asked.

"Sorry, I didn't have that much for dinner," Ron mumbled at us.

"No, not that," the bookworm said, ignoring the red headed prat "It's something else, sounds like wings".

We soon found the source of the strange noise, it was a load of flying keys. Keys with wings, it was such a strange site.

"I've never seen birds like these before" Neville said.

"They aren't birds," Harry said "They're keys".

As expected.

"Accio correct key" I said.

That would have worked if not for the fact that someone had placed anti-summoning charm on the keys, that or I still needed to practice that spell.

"Worth a try" I heard Granger say.

"One of these keys opens that door," Harry said as he took hold of a broom "I think we have to use this broom and catch it".

We needed to hurry this along. Also I should talk to Neville in the future about it wasn't helpful to point out all the things you couldn't do, such as flying, well dungeon delving.

"You should get the key," I told him. "You are the youngest Seeker in a century are you not?"

"Yeah, so," he replied.

He could be so dense at times. If he was the Messiah of the Wizarding World then no wonder a moron like Riddle could take it over.

"This should be easy for you," I said.

Well it worked in the book/film so it should work here.

"But which one is he supposed to catch?" Ron asked. "There must be hundreds of keys up there".

Well dozens really.

"It would be old and rusty like the lock" Hermione Granger said.

"That one!" Harry pointed to the one near the ceiling. "The one with the broken wing".

"Then what are you waiting for?" I asked.

"It's too simple," he said. "There has to be a catch."

The moment Harry's fingers touched the key, while he was hovering in the air, all of the keys changed course and headed directly towards him in frenzy.

"Get to the door!" he yelled at us "Get ready to catch the key!"

He caught the key in short order, and threw it at us, breaking the poor things wings in the process. I jumped into the air grabbing the cool metal between my fingers.

"Loop around and come through the door" I instructed.

"OK!" he yelled.

Whirling around the room, Harry flew into the next chamber just as the rest of us closed the door. It was a good thing he was so fast as the keys went crazy and rammed into the door a heartbeat after we closed it.

"That was a close one," I said.

Those keys could have been lethal.

"Where are we now?" someone asked.

"It looks like some kind of graveyard," Potter answered as he dismounted from the broom..

There was something rather creepy about the place, but this was no resting place for the dead.

"Oh no," Ron said as stepped forward onto the marble floor. "It's not a graveyard. It's a chessboard".

As if the words had triggered it a bunch of fires lit up the entire room to reveal what was indeed a ginormous chess board.

"Who do you think made this?" Granger asked.

I'd say Flitwick given the charms work that had to be involved in something like this. I knew how complex it was just to charm a board game, betwitching something this size would have taken a lot of work.

"No idea," Harry answered.

"There's the door. Let's go" Neville said.

We got moving, but we didn't get very far, not that I was surprised.

"Or not," I said.

We stopped at the row of chessmen, who held their swords up at us.

"What are we supposed to do to get to the door?" Potter asked.

I considered blasting my way through.

"It's obvious isn't it?" Ron said to the rest of us. "We have to play our way across the room. Alright, Harry, you take the empty bishop square. Neville, you take the queen's side castle. Hermione you take the queen's spot, and..."

Really there was time for this, so I just destroyed the enemy pieces, which took a while, but far less time than a chess game.

_"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima" __"Bombarda Maxima"_

_Bombarda Maxima_ is the incantation used for the strongest variation of the Exploding Charm. It caused large, violent explosions capable of demolishing entire walls. It made short work of the chess pieces. They'd reform in short order, because that was what happened to pieces in Wizard's Chess, but for now the way ahead was clear.

"What" I said to the people now staring at me "We don't have time to play games".

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

Not long after Potter went through the purple flames, I managed to trick the Granger into going back and trying to get help. Longbottom and the Weasel stayed with me, but they were easy to stun them and I changed their memories so that they would recall trying a potion in desperation, and then passing out. One of the potions was a sleeping draught I'd recognised it.

As for me I had a potion that would allow me past the flame barrier as I'd know about it well in advance, and so I'd been able to prepare for this moment. I drank my potion, which Serana had made for me, and stepped into the chamber that contained Potter.

Voldemort was long gone, and our defence teacher was now a pile of ashes. I bent down and checked over Potter, he was out cold, but he was alive. I healed him a little, just enough to speed up his recovery, and then I checked his pockets.

I found a small crystal in trouser pocket. I had no idea if it was real or not, but I placed into my pouch of holding for later testing. If needs be I'd seek out the stone's creator and have him tell me how the thing worked.

Would its true owner want it back? I didn't need it so I figured that if he asked then I would return it to him, but I'd have to find the man while in my adult form in case Dumbledore was still in contact with his old friend.

I'd never intended to take the stone, the idea of doing so after Potter had dealt with the Dark Lord, and after freeing it from the mirror, had only popped into my head after Potter had gone through the flames.

Well if nothing else me taking it would prevent Voldemort from ever getting his hands on it as the crystal would soon be safely locked away in the Cosmic Warehouse.

Now I was left wondering for how long Potter would be left on that cold stone floor before Dumbledore or another teacher found him. I decided not to leave him and to wait for someone to come save us.

In the mean time I'd think of a convincing story of how I got into this room, and Dumbledore would never get the truth as my mind was protected.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

Both Potter and I ended up in the infirmary, however I didn't stay for long having only need a check up as I wasn't hurt, and the nurse wanted me out of the way. As such I got back into my own bed in Ravenclaw tower and got a few hours sleep before the excitement of my fellow first years woke me up. I'd forgotten to apply the Silencing Charms to the curtains.

No sooner had I left Ravenclaw Tower than Granger and the Weasel found me so that they could extract information from me.

"What about Harry? Madame Pomfrey wouldn't tell us anything," Hermione said.

Neither of them enquired into my well being. Nor was Longbottom here. I'd have to check in with sometime today.

"He should be alright," I said. "He should be joining us in the Great Hall for the End of the Year Feast. Which we should be heading to".

Potter would be up soon. He doesn't miss the Feast in the books or film. As for me I'd spent the day hiding in the common room so that I didn't have to face the rest of the school. Not that anyone had bothered me.

"That sounds like a good idea," Ron agreed. "I've been told by my brothers that the food at the End of Year Feast is outstanding".

I smiled upon hearing that

"For you, Ron, the food is always outstanding" I said.

Hermione and I laughed.

"I'm sure that Harry will meet up with you" I told the two students "That is if he wakes up in time".

This was when I sensed someone coming up behind me.

"Why would I not wake up?" Potter asked.

He was awake, that was fast. Dumbledore must have spoke to him already.

"Harry, you're OK," Granger said "I was so worried that you wouldn't wake up. What happened with Quirrell?".

Judging by the pile of ash our defence teacher was dead.

"Well, after you went down, Quirrell told me to look in the mirror and stuff" Harry told us "Somehow, I have no idea, but the stone appeared in my pocket and he wanted it".

I wondered if Dumbledore had guessed that I had the stone. He'd never spoken to me during my time at the school, and didn't seem to want to do so now. Not that I really cared what the Headmaster thought.

"You didn't give it to him right?" his classmates asked.

Of course he wouldn't have.

"No, what kind of a person do you take me for?" he asked, before continuing on with his tale. "The craziest part; under Quirrell's turban was Voldemort".

How did that work? Must have been awkward when Quirrell went to the toilet.

"What?" Ron asked. "I think you hit your head too hard"

"No, I'm serious," Harry Potter assured his friends. "He was on the back of Quirrell's head, and he was talking to me".

I decided to slip away at this point so that I could find Serana and Morgana, who might want to be filled in with what had happened. We had a little time to met before the feast started.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

Serana, Morgana and I met down in the Chamber of Secrets, which allowed us to switch to our adult forms.

"Potter defeated Voldemort" I told them "I just made sure he got there in one piece".

I felt sure that Dumbledore would have found a way to encourage the meeting between the Dark Lord and the Boy-Who-Lived, but by getting involved I had been able to destroy a few of the Horcruxs.

Doing so had been important as each Horcrux was itself dangerous. I doubted that all of them contained enough soul to become there own person, like the bit of Riddle's Soul in the diary could, and might still attempt, but there was no sense taking that risk.

The last thing I wanted while the deadra invaded was a dark lord running around, or maybe more than one, even without the invasion Voldemort could be a threat to myself, my companions and my operations in this world. That I would not tolerate.

"So I got the stone" I said to the two women.

They both came closer so that they could examine it. The stone was pretty I had to admit that.

"Might be a fake" I told them "I'll hunt down its creator at some point and ask him about it".

There were other things and people I really should hunt down at some point. Such as Barty Crouch Junior, who wasn't in Azkaban like he was suppose to be. I could simply expose the fact that he was out of jail, but given the drawback I'd taken I didn't want him in Azkaban as he might really escape and come after me.

Given what he'd done to the Longbottoms, and many other people, I was giving serious thought to killing him, and capturing his soul for some enchantment work, as Barty Crouch Junior was someone who deserved the Soul Carin, at least in my view.

Of course I'd have to find the house he lived in first, which wouldn't be easy as Wizard homes couldn't be found on the map, but I had time and money, which always helped in these sort of things. I'd find a way.

"I'll catch up with you two over the summer holidays" I said to my companions "But unless anything happens just try to enjoy your time off. If anything major does happen I will come to fetch you".

Unlike me they couldn't get around via Phoenix so they couldn't just appear at the base in Little Whinging as I was able to.

"We should go" said Morgana "Don't want to miss the feast".

Well I was a bit hungry.

(Line Break)

**Hogwarts. The Magical World.**

The tables were full to capacity, and food lined the entire surface of each table, and it never seemed to end. Ron's brothers had been right, the food was incredible, the dishes were varied and when one was finished, it was replaced with something new.

I couldn't believe that it was the end of the year already. In a matter of weeks I'd have completed one tenth of this whole Jump. I had to wonder if it would be enough time to learn all the spells I needed to, and to see all of the magical world that I wished to see, not to mention my operations within the muggle world.

"Your attention please!" Professor McGonagall hollered.

Dumbledore got to his feet and began his speech.

"Another year has passed us by, and what an unusual time it has been. Now, as I understand, the House Cup has to be rewarded, and the points stand as this. In fourth place, with 312 points, Gryffindor, third place, with 352 points, Hufflepuff, in second place, with 426 points, Ravenclaw, and in first place, with 472 points, Slytherin,"

The table on the far side went ballistic. I could see Malfoy and his band of thugs cheering along with the rest of those slimy gits.

"Yes, yes, well done Slytherin, well done, however recent events must be taken into account,"

The room grew quite.

"And I have a few, last minute points to award" the old man declared "To Damien Pendragon, the cool use of intellect when others were in grave peril, fifty points to Ravenclaw".

Most of the hall burst into a thunderous applause because Ravenclaw had just taken the led, and I'd regained all the points I'd lost. Alas their cheers wouldn't lass.

"Secondly, to Mr. Ronald Weasley, for showing courage in the face of danger I award fifty points" Dumbledore declared.

I didn't hear some of next part as I was wondering that the heck Dumbledore was on about since the Weasel boy had done nothing. Was the Headmaster so arrogant that he believed that his plan had worked out as scripted?

To make matters worse Potter's sidekick was accepting the praise and adulation of his peers.

"Gryffindor wins the House Cup!" Dumbledore said, once the rest of the House Points had been given out "Which calls for a change in decorations".

The entire of their table went crazy upon hearing that, even McGonagall cheered. I saw Malfoy with a look of disgust on his face. I shared it for a moment, then I remembered that the points were worthless and that winning the House Cup actually meant nothing.

In fact none of it really matter. By the start of next year the students would have forgotten about all this. Just as they had forgotten Snape, no one even mentioned him anymore.

What I did care about was that Ravenclaw had beaten Gryffindor at the last Qudditch match of the year, which taken place just this afternoon, and why that mattered to me was the team would need a new Seeker next year. I would so have that spot.

(Line Break)

**Cae Nest Hall. Wizarding World.**

It was good to be back at my home, not that home meant much to a Jumper, but I was finding it enjoyable to be away from the school. I enjoyed spending time alone, as it gave me the chance to review what I had learned this year, while also getting to plan for the future.

I'd not forgotten about the possibility of a future demonic invasion by creatures from another dimension. It wasn't something you could just dismiss as a concern, however there wasn't much I could do about that right now, and what could be done would be handled my companions who were working in the muggle world.

We had plans in motion, which I could go and check up on over the summer, and it would be nice to see my companions again. I'd not been able to spend much time with them since starting this Jump, and for some reason this mattered more to me when I knew that they weren't in stasis.

Sneaking out would be tricky now that I was under the somewhat watchful eye of my Au Pair, not that I worried about her too much as she pretty easy to get around. Not many adults can conceive of the idea of getting outsmarted by a 12 year old boy.

As if thinking about her had some how summoned me to my room Adele came into presence, and I could tell that she had something to tell me that was of importance.

"Damien ai 'ave zumthéng to tell you" she said.

She seemed a little sad I noted.

"Yur fathair won't bé returneng zis summair" I was informed.

I'd forgotten about him. Most parents do try to spend time with their children. Not that I had much experience having a father or being one for that matter. In view it was best for Jumpers to avoid those sort of attachments.

"Zo you weehl be coméng wiv me when ai go to visit mon family" Adele let me know.

Well that made sense, she had two little sisters I knew that, and also parents more than likely. Naturally she'd have time off during the summer to go visit them as that was when magical folks took their holidays.

I assumed from Adele's words that my father was suppose to have taken some time off and come home. Also I suspected that he was shacked up with some mistress in Hong Kong, and would rather stay with her.

If so, good for him. As long as he kept filling up my trust fund I really didn't care what the old man got up to. Although I might write to him and ask him to sell my magical versions of muggle games at some point in the future.

"You weehl lik france. Wé weehl visit, Place Cachée" I was told** "**Eet eez la Parisian vairshé-on of Diajén Alléy".

Well that sounded interesting.

"There you can met la famous, Niculas Flamél" she said.

Now that got my attention.

"The alchemist?" I asked "You know him".

Adele nodded her head.

"Yes 'e eez mon many times great-grandfathair" she said.

That should make me suspicious, however people in the wizarding world in Britain were distantly related due to people marrying their cousins and all that, and if this happened elsewhere then it shouldn't be a surprise that Adele and Flamel knew each other.

"Do I need to pack now?" I asked.

As it turned out we wouldn't be going for a few days, which would give me time to do some relaxing as well as planning. I found that I was actually looking forward to this trip as I did want to see more of the magic cultures of this world.

My plan was to travel after finishing school, however I did have a long summer holiday ahead, so I might as well travel and see the sites, after all wasn't that at least partly what Jump Chain was all about.

I turned then as I heard an owl hoot, and I realised that my paper had arrived. I checked the headline and felt my veins turn into ice water. Gellert Grindelwald had been transferred from his prison in Europe, which had been damaged according to the paper, to Azkaban.

Which shouldn't be a big concern as the dark lord hadn't been active for fifty odd years and Dumbledore had overseen the transfer, but I'd selected a drawback that would led to a dark wizard escaping Azkaban and coming after me, and now the one wizard arguably more dangerous than Voldemort was in Azakaban.

It was a good thing that I'd made that sliding device as I might need to flee this reality after all.


End file.
